Ian Anderson Quotes

I'd love to be in Paul McCartney's shoes for a day. I'd love to pick up a guitar and write songs like he does. Or to experience what it might have been like to be a Beatle for a day.

My life would have been different without Paul Stanley or Ace Frehley. They would have to be the greatest on my list as an influence to my life at 11 years old.

I'm a huge Springsteen fan, and yet if either he or Bob Dylan had to be erased from the world's hard drive, I would save Bob Dylan's work for sure - he's the greater talent, and by leaps and bounds and skyscrapers and rocket blasts. But Bob Dylan is an alien to his public.

In 1952, Muddy cut the song 'Rollin' Stone.' It was a nationwide success, and the song echoes down through rock n' roll history. Bob Dylan cut a tribute by the same name, an English band decided to call themselves the Rolling Stones, and the magazine that first embraced music as a serious cultural phenomenon was itself called 'Rolling Stone.'

All I've been trying to do all my life is to make great music.

Where is this great love for rock and roll that existed for 50 or 60 years?

Rock and roll is here to stay.

The Rascals are something else. They're up there with the Beatles, and Stones and Byrds. That level of musicality. They have a real chemistry. It is like magic.

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.

There's always people saying that rock is dead, rock is over. People are always out to kill rock and roll.

I think people like Steve Vai are so boring.

I was growing up listening to Queen. Freddie Mercury threw those incredible melodies into his songs.

U2 - that's a band that never should have existed. There's no life experience in any of their songs.

I love those Keith Richards solo records, but it's not the Rolling Stones.

The Rolling Stones were one of the best bands ever, and 'Sticky Fingers' is one of the best rock albums I've ever heard.

I am one of the biggest Laura Nyro fans. I still listen to that stuff incessantly. Laura Nyro does not belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Songwriter Hall of Fame? Absolutely.

The Weezer 'Blue' Album is a classic. I think My Morning Jacket's 'Circuital' is a great album to have. Any Led Zeppelin album. Pink Floyd 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' or 'Animals.' I always catch myself at concerts being like, 'Oh, I just stared at the drummer for 15 straight minutes.' I study them.

I'm an old rock and roll buff. I love Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.

You know, Rolling Stones songs all sound kind of the same.

I take my hat off to people like the Stones, but it's not for me. I couldn't do that. Jagger is brilliant and long may he rock. I couldn't make my career out of old songs; it would do my head in.

I'm not dissatisfied with my place in it rock 'n' roll.

No, I don't think rock 'n' roll will ever fade.

Everything I know, I stole directly from Ace Frehley, Angus Young, and Keith Richards. That's how you learn.

Rock n' roll's not dead.

Eddie Cochran - I never got to see him live, but he could play. Him and Buddy Holly, they were the best guitarists. They could get a good raunchy beat going.