Tom Petty Quotes

At the end of the day, they're happy if you do the obvious songs towards the end of the set and you've got to try and make yourself happy by doing certain songs at the front end of the set.

And it really is a good feeling to get up there and make that sound. I'm not stuck in a time warp, because I can use as many of the old songs as I want to, just the favorites.

I don't write songs thinking about formats, where is it going to get played, who am I gonna please, what's the outlet for it.

Doing DJ sets is like - is difficult to me. Cause you have to find that happy medium of playing what the crowd wants and what you want.

I have to remember that no matter how often I perform, there are certain songs that the audience truly wants to hear, and even though I've sung it 100,000 times, it may be their first time hearing them.

So I usually call the songs when I get on the stage, according to what the crowd feels like to me. I can jump from 50 years ago to right up to now, and people will be familiar with the songs. And since we never do them the same way, it's a new experience.

I always want to play the songs that people want to hear.

To me, it's pretty much the same thing - I just love playing music. But the cool thing about DJing is that I get to play other people's music, I can mix it up between our songs and a variety of musical genres. It also enables me to be more intimate with the audience.

I want to entertain my audience. I know when then come and see me play, if I don't do 'Swing Town,' 'Jet Airliner,' 'Take the Money and Run,' 'True Fine Love,' 'Fly Like an Eagle,' 'The Joker,' blah blah blah - if I don't do all those songs, they'll be extremely disappointed. I love to do them.

Nostalgia is one thing. It's great to go and play the old songs. People know them and appreciate them. You got to give them what they want to hear.

I want to eventually get to a point where I can make all types of music for every type of crowd.

There are two things that matter when you're making music. First, that you're doing what you love, even if it's crazy and other people tell you it's crazy. The second thing is the only people you really need to worry about are the people who love your music, not the people who speak badly about it.

In Berlin... it's important to present a concert that will change their ears... so if you present a Tchaikovsky symphony, you get almost no audience.

When you play a show or festival, people know what they're getting; they want it. Then you're thrown onto a show where people are watching TV in their houses, and whether they ask for it or not, we're being played in front of them. There's a lot of negative feedback.

I just became accustomed to being all the members of the band. That was something that was really exciting to me.

You can be accessible without catering to an audience.

Performing live is difficult. But nobody's forcing us to do it.

There is nothing like hearing people sing your single back to you during a show.

I've always had an ear for rocking a party. Just knowing what people like.

For my shows, I don't play too many slow songs.

Showbiz works well when you give the audience what they want.

Playing a room, it's a real dictator-type situation - you can really move the crowd the way you want to. In a festival, there's a sea of people, and it's harder to lock in on any one group.

I have always had an audience for my music, even in the very avant garde, crazy times.

I know how to do music, no matter how weird I look on stage with the face paint, mask, and hospital scrubs.

When I am composing in a studio, I cannot gauge what the audience feels. Sometimes, good songs don't get the recognition because the films fail. But when you are performing live, the reaction is immediate.