Rick Nielsen Quotes

I don't play pyrotechnic scales. I play about frustration, patience, anger. Music is an extension of my soul.

The reason I play so many sounds, maybe it sounds angry, is because I'm trying so many things at one time, you see? I haven't sorted them out. I have a whole bag of things that I'm trying to work through and get the one essential.

I do music because I can just pick up my guitar and sing, and completely satisfy, instant gratification. I don't need a script, I don't people, I don't need anything, cameras, I just have myself and my guitar, or keyboard.

To me, the guitar is a tool for songwriting, and it's fun, too. The day that it's not fun, that's when I'm not gonna play guitar anymore.

I could hear and feel music going on in me, and I couldn't get it out. You can always depend on a guitar.

I also started writing songs because I had this burning activity in my heart and had to express myself.

What I couldn't say verbally I was able to express physically through the guitar.

Singing allowed me to express myself in ways that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise.

With a guitar I would be able to express the things I felt in sounds.

That's what rock music is, I think - constantly searching for authenticity, and being as honest as possible.

I got tired of playing other people's songs.

I make my guitar scream with pain or pleasure or sensuality. It makes people move their feet and shake their bodies. That's what music does.

I've always loved music, very simply, as a vehicle to express myself and that hasn't changed.

As a musician I'm about expressing what's inside, and I think everyone has a song in them that they need to get out, whatever their gig is.

I'm not a man of many words, I'm not very expressive or emotional, but it comes out in my music.

Let me explain something about guitar playing. Everyone's got their own character, and that's the thing that's amazed me about guitar playing since the day I first picked it up. Everyone's approach to what can come out of six strings is different from another person, but it's all valid.

I love... different kinds of music. I like classical music and pop music. I like alternative, and I like rap, hip-hop, and I kind of collected all these things that I love, and they infused my sensibilities, and I just wanted to sing because it felt like it needed to come out of me.

The way I choose to show my feelings is through my songs.

With my music, I can express myself so much. A lot of the fans can sense that I'm relating to them something that's quite personal.

Although I dig my guitar playing, I think it's kind of an obvious situation; I play what I want to play within my own restrictions.

And, so, when I picked up the guitar, suddenly, just playing a couple of notes really, really spoke to me. It was almost like I should have been doing it prior to that. You know, it was something that just felt really natural.

Nobody could understand why a guy would love his guitar, then all of a sudden turn around and try to destroy it. Jimi was just different.

When something really hits me, it makes me want to either jump off something really high or lie down and be buried. I want people to get hit and caught by my music.

Once I discovered music and that you don't need to just use words but can add a growl to the melody, that releases so much more. I never want to make music for any other reason.

I play guitar, so that's kind of my outlet, but its just something I want to keep for myself.