John Entwistle Quotes

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

I've always done very 'composed' music and worked-out solos. But sometimes it's fun not knowing where you're going.

The apparatus has to serve our improbability and improvisation. Being good and playing the songs is not enough.

I think probably with any performer, but maybe with rock music especially, the audience wants to see the singer being real, and exploring, and not doing a rehearsed routine, so I'm just constantly looking for new things to try. I'm really curious out there, and my curiosity has led me into all kinds of bizarre situations.

If you're always playing the correct notes, there's something wrong - you're not searching; you're not reaching for anything.

A lot of improvisation and freedom went into 'Pinata.'

One thing people always ask me is 'How do you play outside?' ... I have no idea how to teach that, but when I was discussing this with our bass player Jesse Murphy, he said 'tell them to go cliff diving'... In other words, when you're jamming, you have to take risks if you want to find new sounds.

The wonderful thing about Jazz is its willingness to take chances.

When I do a take, I very often try things that I haven't planned to try to see if I can pull it off.

I like to improvise.

You can't plan everything - if I did a performance exactly how I rehearsed it, it would be so boring.

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

When I start playing I'm just a rollercoaster of sound. I don't know what's coming next, I never do, and I sit and sign and talk to the people afterwards.

Improvisation is too good to leave to chance.

You want to be playing off the cuff sometimes to take chances and make something happen.

It often feels like a tremendous amount of work is required to get an idea moving forward, like pushing a train uphill. But at a certain point, the thing takes on its own momentum, and takes unexpected turns. So it's that feeling of holding on, rather than pushing it, that is the most exciting thing. It's that need to occasionally bounce off the walls, letting anything happen for any reason, and having nothing to guide you that is the joy.

You can't make a mistake when you improvise.

When it's time to make music, that's about getting lost for me. To be a control freak is not half as good as being a freak who's casually in control. You're feeling around in the dark for something that feels good.

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.

I love to play things that are out-of-the-box. It's just that I don't always get the chance to do it!

See, there were certain rules I'd always used, and people like Trane, they would break those rules.

You know. I'll try anything. I'll do anything. I'll explore. Try different takes. All that kind of stuff to do sometimes, to do good performances, but always conducive to having a good time creatively.

If there's a song where there's a possibility of guitar stuff that would be fun to listen to, go for it. Don't worry about what anybody thinks.

Sometimes my mistakes turn into interesting music because I do things that aren't supposed to be done.