Steve Cropper Quotes

I guess you'd say I'm a gearhead. It's not just guitars; I have five or six drum sets, a bunch of keyboards... It's like Guitar Center exploded, and all the cool stuff dropped in my backyard. I'm a really lucky guy, I have to admit.

Sometimes I like them artificial and sometimes I like them real. And the reason is because sometimes I like a real close sound. And I like a very specific snare sound and I can't get that in the big room.

Still for fun, I play the drums, but I don't do much recording with them.

I've often thought that my background in rock 'n' roll has gone to waste in film work. My background was that I was a rock 'n' roll drummer and I don't think I used drums in my first ten years of film scoring.

My dream job is to be a rock drummer and the alternate drummer for the Foo Fighters.

I worked with Chris Squire on a Greg Lake record in the early '80s, worked with Alan White.

I like tweaking the studio and wiring things up almost as much as making music, so that's kind of a hobby of mine, in and of itself. I don't like to collect gear that I know I'm not going to use, though.

When I record music I like to be in one place and kind of have a base to keep going back to.

I fly to London or the U.S. to record my music nearly once a month.

For 'Rock On,' we not only acted as rock musicians; we also went into the studio to record songs and jammed live to get the concert feel right.

In the early Nineties, after my first round of financial problems, I started a studio in Kensal Road in London right at the time when no record company wanted to hear anything from Leo Sayer.

My desk is my drums.

On the 'Escondido' album, I think it took us a month to make that album.

Travis Barker is one of the greatest drummers ever, and all the guys in blink are really good songwriters.

For us, we make a song, and if we like it, it goes on a record.

I got to record at Capital Records, which was especially awesome. You see all those big singers like Ariana Grande, Beyonce: they're all recording at Capital. It was really cool to be there every single day and just hang out.

I think probably the first time I recorded anything was mid-2010.

When I first came out with the Winery Dogs, I had a Bonham set-up. That was such a departure from the huge kits that I had become known for. It was really enjoyable.

I always wanted to make rock music as well or as an element of what I do.

Right after high school... the first time I ever recorded music was with a rapper, a friend of mine, and I would just be like, 'I'll sing your choruses.' So I would sing his hooks and he would go in there and rap.

I wrote a whole solo album and recorded some of it, even did a little tour with Sara Lee and Gail Ann Dorsey.

Sometimes things get too layered and compressed or there's too many effects and they turn into mush on record. I strive to keep it raw and live-sounding, like you are in the room watching the band play.

The music comes first. Final lyrics are usually written very close to recording the vocals.

Most people when they rap usually have their homies in the studio who rap with 'em, but they homies don't usually be producers.

Lars Ulrich, he was my hero growing up. I wanted to be like him. I played the drums.