Pete Townshend Quotes

I met Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin when I hung out with Michael Lang just before the Woodstock Festival. They were as charismatic in person as they were on stage.

Jimi Hendrix was the master of live stuff. He was my inspiration to do the yo-yo, everything he did on stage was awesome.

I never thought I'd be on the same stage as Kiss.

I wanted to make a film that gave the people who took LSD at that time the hallucinations that you get with that drug, but without hallucinating.

I like playing. Guitar... on a loud rock stage... with colored lights. Everything sounds better with colored lights!

The most amazing live shows that I've ever seen were Rain Parade shows.

I've always been a little bit in the background as a singer and even as an acoustic-guitar player, although I crank it up and rock with my Marshall stacks, too.

There were a lot of really special moments for me. When I first sang 'Fix You' by Coldplay, that was one. I love that song so much, and I love Coldplay, and I love what the song meant.

We started playing 'Free Bird' in clubs, and initially, it was just a slow ballad.

All great music is in one way or another psychedelic.

We went to see Lenny Kravitz last summer in Austin and he was awesome. His show was just awesome. I mean, like, when you see some of these great bands, you sit there and think, man, if only we were that tight, you know?

You want a showman, go see rock 'n' roll bands today. You want to have a shamanistic experience, get psychedelic, then you watch The Doors.

The first concert I attended was an Elvis concert when I was eleven. Even at that age he made me realize the tremendous effect a performer could have on an audience.

It was shocking to see Nirvana play, because it was like, "Here's this little guy with a monster-guitar sound." And it was heavier than Black Sabbath. That was shocking.

I suddenly became strangely inebriated. The external world became changed as in a dream. Objects appeared to gain in relief; they assumed unusual dimensions; and colors became more glowing. Even self-perception and the sense of time were changed. When the eyes were closed, colored pictures flashed past in a quickly changing kaleidoscope. After a few hours, the not unpleasant inebriation, which had been experienced whilst I was fully conscious, disappeared. What had caused this condition?

If You can play Your stuff in a pub, then You´re a good band.

The performances had to be live. When you play it back, you can see if the hands aren't really doing the right thing, and then the whole magic falls apart.

The Color Purple received four Tony nominations; the play is highly looked at and it's a must see for everyone. I just want to carry on what Jennifer Hudson has done and help the team get to the finish line.

The tryptamine molecule has this unique property of releasing the structured self into the over-self.

My first job was singing at the Hammersmith Odeon. It was years ago, so I can't remember who I was performing with. I was a sort of anti-climax after two hours of heavy rock-'n'-roll. Seventeen years old in a white dress. It was the first time that I got applause. Wonderful, that noise in my ears.

I just chased bands all over the country. The biggest one I saw was Jimi Hendrix.

The Beatles had gone beyond comprehension. We were smoking marijuana for breakfast. We were well into marijuana and nobody could communicate with us, because we were just glazed eyes, giggling all the time.

Never have your wallet with you onstage. It's bad luck. You shouldn't play the piano with money in your pocket. Play like you need the money.

I've always loved the rock & roll element to live shows, because whatever else I do, I'm basically a rock/pop performer, and that's what I like.

DMT seems to argue, convincingly I might add, that the world is made entirely of something, for want of a better word, we would have to call magic.