Tim Commerford Quotes

Never Tire of Protesting

Freedom is a part of protest as well.

Long live protest songs, in whatever form they take.

Early in my career, people wanted to hear music about protest, about trying to change things.

I want to use my music to deliver a political message and sometimes to denounce, but I don't want to be a politician.

I don't think there's any perfect way to protest.

I think of protest as confrontation and disruption, as the end of silence.

There's still injustice happening in my world. I sing my songs at concerts and I'm so grateful that the people are ready to hear them.

I have heard more than once, 'Shut up and sing!' and I get it now.

I'm always happy when I'm protesting.

I prefer to make common cause with those whose weapons are guitars, banjos, fiddles and words.

Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.

Art is about the edges and the sharp corners and those places are not conducive to activism, which is about putting on a gloss.

I mean, there's a hell of a lot of grounds for protest, but you don't do it through music.

I have never had a vote, and I have raised hell all over this country. You don't need a vote to raise hell! You need convictions and a voice!

I have known the fruits of strikes. The bitter and the sweet. Hunger and music.

Security isn't what I hunger for. I hunger for change. I hunger for connection.

I certainly was one of the instigators in the 1960s of freedom of expression.

There's something contagious about demanding freedom.

I want to be able to talk about changing the world through your actions and being a generation that is aware and a force to be reckoned with - and at the same time be dancing.

Social change without music would be void of soul. Nonviolence without music, meditation, action, and a willingness to take risks probably doesn't exist.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.

Make my skin into drumheads for the Bohemian cause.

One good song with a message can bring a point more deeply to more people than a thousand rallies.

I've played hundreds of protests. I've marched on dozens of picket lines. I've strummed my guitar at innumerable demonstrations.