Charlie Watts Quotes

Playing live is everything. Sometimes being on the road is hard, and it's a lot of work, and tiring. From a musical point of view, you improve all the time. Not only that, but you learn how to deal with people and deal with energy in a live setting.

In 1972 through '74, right before we hit it big, we were hauling our own equipment into the club and setting up and playing for, I don't know, a hundred bucks a night.

We'll only be playing four new songs live, but all the material for the next album is basically finished.

My dream has been to have my rock band behind me, play live, and entertain.

I just got a band together in mid-2012, and we played our first show in October of that year.

I guess actually playing on the records and touring is a great forced practice regimen for me. And you learn a lot playing with people.

I love playing live; that's the main thing. But I hate being in the studio. It's the most boring thing ever.

When we're on tour, we try to keep our voices sharp. We get up there and put on the best show we can.

Playing live if the thing I love doing best.

You're in a band 24 hours a day.

The worst thing about the life of a jazz musician on the road is getting to the gig. Once you're there and playing, it's marvelous.

The first gig we ever played was in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I'm from. I was in a band called the October Game, and we opened up for a Vancouver band.

Keeping a consistent band going is a bit like getting the Aston Martin out the garage - you have to run it every now and then!

I have such a great band. We had played all this material on the road. I just wanted to let it fly.

Actually, I've done it the other way so many times where you rehearse the band and you do the whole thing with lights, the show and the crew - everything. Then you see what happens and you're already committed to dates. I'm just sort of putting out feelers this way.

Traveling the world was a constant thing, rich with experiences. But all of it was relative to being able to play live onstage and really stretch out.

Way before we got a record deal, we were playing clubs seven nights a week, three one-hour sets a night. Then we got the record deal, and we took off on the road and stayed out.

When I get back with band, the lights, and the whole production, that's me with the full artillery. A quick radio performance keeps me sharp for the big show.

I just get onstage and sing. I don't think about how I'm going to do it - it's too complicated.

Usually for the tour, there's about 80 songs in our brain.

I wrote 'Torches' before experiencing touring as a band. I really had no idea what they would sound like live, and that was something we had to figure out along the way.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were really great. I saw them live in the '90s; they were really, really good. The music is great, and the musicians are amazing.

We really can't go out and party every night like a lot of bands do - we have to keep our voices right for the show. It's a bummer, but you gotta do what you gotta do to live the dream.

I have been touring since I got my first band in 1962, so there is no problem there. We are basically performing musicians, so that's what we do.

In 1956, I began playing in a band with Boz Scaggs.