Mick Jones Quotes

People like Frank Zappa were amazing for us Brits.

The thing about influence is that any composer worth anything will give you the same names.

The biggest influence? I've had several at different times - but the biggest for me was Bob Dylan, who was a guy that came along when I was twelve or thirteen and just changed all the rules about what it meant to write songs.

I always felt rock and roll was very, very wholesome music.

Rock was my thing. It influences me and moves me, and it's music that gives me ideas or wings to fly and to make films.

Obviously, any living musician born after 1960 has been touched by rock and roll. It's the music of our time, and it's 'in the air,' as Steve Reich would say. My experience of it is just really direct because I'm actually playing in a collaborative band.

It probably all started with The Beatles, and then I guess it goes out from there. Springsteen... Fleetwood Mac... I mean, that's all so inherent in us that when we're making records now, we take a lot from the artists who are around us.

Music is in my DNA!

I know when somebody's heard my music. I can hear it in their music.

There are artists, true performers that have come before me who have been a big inspiration to me. I hope I do the same for others.

The first record I ever listened to was Elvis Presley, and I remember thinking, 'Man this guy is cool!' The swagger he had really helped my confidence, because he really made me think that a white boy could make music like this.

As I said to Ringo, I was in a successful Rock N Roll band. He was in a band that changed the world. That's the difference.

Rock n' roll is very special to me. It's my lifeblood.

I made up my mind that I was going to be just like Elvis. It never occurred to me that Elvis was a man. I just wanted to be him. He had a huge impact on me, right down to that black leather jumpsuit he wore on the '68 Comeback Special.

I have no shame in making music that maybe, if you listen to it long enough, you'll realize you've heard this or that part of it before. I'm still very excited by an amazingly written song, so that's really the thing that I work on when I make records with people.

But KISS inspired me personally to pick up a guitar and go for it.

I've got rock 'n' roll in my blood.

When I hear myself singing, I hear Iggy Pop and Jimi Hendrix. There's a conversational thing going on. I suppose it depends on which The Pretenders song you're listening to.

If it weren't for the Beatles, I would not be a musician.

Rock and roll doesn't necessarily mean a band. It doesn't mean a singer, and it doesn't mean a lyric, really. It's that question of trying to be immortal.

Rock n' roll really belongs to all America. It really doesn't belong to one city.

When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.

There's people making babies to my music. That's nice.

I'm not reinventing the wheel here. I'm not Chuck Berry or Bill Monroe. Guys like that are from outer space.

I've been ripping the Rolling Stones off with every song I write in some form or another.