Brian Setzer Quotes

I was always interested in listening to music - and, of course, when my older brother brought home 'Heartbreak Hotel,' that was it.

I'm learning to work under pressure. Yesteryear songs are slow and demanding on the expressions.

The only person that anybody's ever said I resemble is a young Elvis. It used to happen a lot more when I was younger, and more when I don't wear a hat.

Most people don't really need to hear a six-minute guitar solo that modulates between five keys and time signatures. What they want is a good song.

I know I'm not Freddie Mercury or Ann Wilson, and that's okay. You don't have to be a great singer to sing rock and roll. That's not what it's about.

That's part of the curse: If you're gonna play the song, you better play it. I've tried to phone in 'Jeremy' a few times, and it's tough. It doesn't work.

I was an Elvis freak. That's all I listened to growing up.

I was obsessed with Elvis Presley when I was little.

You don't really know a song until you play it live.

When I was 13, I was just figuring out how to play 'Eruption,' poorly, by Eddie Van Halen.

It is never right to play ragtime fast.

I think I always wished I could play guitar as well as Jimi Hendrix.

Don t play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast.

I don't have a good memory, so learning all the songs for my TV performances was a real challenge.

I was a piano performance major at USC. I left before I graduated because I realized at some point I wasn't going to be a concert pianist and I was too attracted to popular music.

When I became a 'rock musician,' I assumed pop music was easy to write and that interesting rock music, or alternative music, was hard. It was only later I realised that writing a pop song is the hardest thing musically.

I can't sight-read classical etudes - I would have to see it and learn it. But yeah, I can read. It is a wonderful tool. It's like speaking another language. Anyone that says reading music can hurt your playing is either stupid, lazy, or ignorant.

My pop culture ended somewhere north of Elvis but not too far.

The music comes alive when you actually perform it in front of a crowd.

I do like performing 'I'll Take Your Man,' because that was a hard song.

Anytime I'm playing music or getting ready to record, Duane Allman will enter my thoughts, and so will Berry Oakley. It's part of my musical makeup and mental process when it comes to music. We learned to play together and taught each other a lot.

I play music from Queen, to Elton John, to classic.

Music has a lot in com­mon with math­e­mat­ics. But in music, two and two need not make four: they add up to what­ever you wish.

I'm not very good at playing piano, so I usually hit chords with my right hand. And those chords came, and I was just singing a little bit.

Soundgarden and Metallica, The Ramones, Everclear... I think they all wanted to see if we still knew how to play.