Neil Peart Quotes

I like being in a band where everybody's equal.

You've got to be able to compromise in a band; otherwise, somebody's more important than the next guy, and that's never been the case in Priest.

It's hard to say when the life of a band starts and stops... but playing music together is an act of trust. When that's broken, it's impossible to continue.

The Sekrets record is very much me, and Dan's Emergency Room is very much him. And then Alkaline Trio is very much ours.

In a band that works out well, everybody has a certain role to fulfill.

We're all players and musicians and we sure all get along good. We just clicked right off the bat. We started playing and then we almost immediately started recording.

When you're in a band and there's five of you, you have to accommodate five people in every song.

We're all very sensitive that Jim has the shortest history with the band. He wants to be somewhat of a free agent. I'm just going to let time dictate how Jim's future evolves.

The music comes first. When Geoff has made something the inspiration comes automatically. His music is very expressive. But still is is a very difficult process: I have to add something to his music, not push it away. It has to be equal, and I find that very difficult.

The reality is, like any band, you can never quite quantify who does what.

I've been in very many situations where I've not liked the other members of the band or they have not liked me. I grew up presuming that's the way music was made. It doesn't need to be that way. It's taken me years years to find that out.

For the most part, I really love being in a collaborative thing. And in a collaborative thing if you have a singer as good as Sean Smith or Eddie Vedder, you kind of think, well, why don't you just go ahead and let them sing? People seem to really like it.

Bands are about these little relationships that make everything tick, and when you create new music you're testing those relationships.

And it was a very, very fruitful and great relationship between the Stones and The Beatles. It was very, very friendly.

You're always frustrated, you don't have the chance to do a song on the album, like the Beatles did with Ringo and George, or like Led Zeppelin, where everybody was given a chance to contribute. There never is a chance with the Stones.

When you see U2 or the Rolling Stones, after years of knowing each other, they don't have to look at each other to connect.

Every band needs it's own special chemistry. And Bez was a very good chemist.

When you're with somebody as iconic as Mick Jagger or John Fogerty, I'm really aware that, in asking these guys to collaborate with me, I don't want to add a footnote to their career that's like, 'Shouldn't' have done that.' It's important to make sure that they're well represented.

The Eagles are four very alpha personalities. We've all done solo work, and we've all played with very good musicians, but when the four of us get together, it becomes something that's much bigger than any one of us.

The longevity of a band is really contingent on loving the people that you're making music with and being able to get along in the long run. It's just like being married, except you're married to more than one person!

I write these songs and I like the idea of letting the band interpret it as they will. This band is like any band; it's not just me. This isn't just a way for me to play my songs. There are four distinct artistic voices, and they deserve to be expressed.

We're closer friends in Stone Sour than I am with the guys in Slipknot and that makes life a lot easier. I'm not trying to take anything away from Slipknot.

For the people that don't know it, we've had members come and go from this band since the beginning. It's always been about collaboration, and it's been about just playing music with our friends.

My material contribution musically was less than George's, and George and I have both always been very open about that.

I only want to write a song with the people who want to write a song with me.