Dave Pirner Quotes

I'm not here to battle anybody. In the end it's just an instrument. That shouldn't be a concept.

I love our industry. I love the song. I love the voice. I love it. Not necessarily my voice. But I care about the song and the voice.

To me, there was nothing greater than to play for an audience and to entertain people and that has stayed with me all these years.

What I have to do as a musician is do everything that is not on the music.

Soul is a colourless thing. I don't think you have to be a black person to be automatically soulful. I respect Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake; they do what they do. For me, my philosophy has always been 'contribution before competition.'

Dancing was my sport when I was younger. So I chose that over everything. And then, I just had to keep going because it became a competitive thing. But I'm not trying to impress anyone anymore. Dancing is more like my art, now.

In sports, you play up to the level of your opponent, and I did some of my best work with Chevy, and I'm so grateful to have worked opposite him. He was a handful and a challenge, and he made me step up to the plate.

I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

Sports and music are the same thing to me. When done wrong, they are really frustrating; when done right, they can change your day.

It's such a joy to work with different ensembles and create a collaboration. Rehearsing and building a performance is very interesting for me.

I just want to make the best music of all time with my best friends.

There are great songs out there, and if I love them, and I know them, I'm going to sing them just because that's what songs are for.

Songs are songs, and to reduce them is to waste them.

I love writing for dancers. You don't have to worry about the lyrics. I think to write words without music must be so frustrating. It must be always be so good, so perfect.

Comedy is like music, and the way to make the best music is to have skilled musicians in your band.

Music isn't what I do. It's who I am.

I'm just excited I get to sing all the time. There's nothing but open ears of people wanting to listen.

There is no 'perfect' in music. If I ever came off the stage and felt it could not be better, it would then be time to quit.

I just try to tell a story with a song, and be able to try to transmit the emotion to you. That's all I'm really trying to do.

To me, playing an instrument and singing, all of these different things are just as natural to me as rhyming.

There were no rules, other than that the song should sound good and be fun to play.

But what was my motivation was music, and the fact that I love to move around. I'm always moving around.

I like to dance, but I'm not a dancer.

That's probably half the reason I wanted to be in a band - I wanted to see the world.

I've been singing since I was 16 because I love it - I wanted to be a singer, not a star. There's a difference between wanting to be famous and wanting to sing well.