Jim Root Quotes

Being in a band is a really magical thing because you've got a family and you operate as this one entity. It's very democratic; everyone is involved in the output. But within that, there can be a lot of disagreements and strife.

I tell everybody, if you've got a band that works, it's a miracle. It's never going to be perfect, but if it works on some level, hold on to it with both hands and don't ever let it go.

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

The wonderful thing about rock music is even if you hate the other person, sometimes you need him more, you know. In other words if he's the guy that made that sound, he's the guy that made that sound, and without that guy making that sound, you don't have a band, you know.

With Pearl Jam, everybody is so good at what they do, it's hard to get up the courage to say, Can I sing this part, or, I want to play guitar. I feel like I have more courage to do that.

Just because you put super great musicians together, it doesn't mean you're going to have that chemistry as a band.

It's very difficult sometimes having bands, you know, when all the members aren't on the same page.

For the sound we produce, everybody is equally important. Each of us has a very different personality and that is what keeps Bush alive.

Chemistry cannot be manufactured or forced, so Wild Flag was not a sure thing, it was a 'maybe,' a 'possibility.' But after a handful of practice sessions, spread out over a period of months, I think we all realized that we could be greater than the sum of our parts.

People forget that keeping a band together is hard; man, it's really hard. All the cliches apply about living in each other's pockets; of it being a relationship, a marriage, a family.

You're in a band with someone, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to agree with everything they think or do.

Bands work in a way where everyone, at some point, has to have a similar idea of how you do things.

Fleetwood Mac was one big lesson in adaptation for me. There were five very different personalities, and I suppose that made it great for a while.

Being in a band, you become each other's best friends as well as each other's worst enemies.

Everyone wants the same thing in this band, so we definitely respect each other. I mean, all of us have had hit songs, so it's a band full of people who really know what they're talking about, so you have to respect that even when you think something you have might be great, and they go, 'Man, it's not as great as you think it is.'

I prefer the band aspect of things. I feel comfortable. It feels good to look to my left and right and see three other people on stage with you that love music as much as you.

Most bands don't work out. A small unit democracy is very, very difficult.

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

People think I left The Band and spoiled this whole thing, and that's not what happened. Nobody broke up The Band. Nobody ever said, 'That's it, we're done.'

We're five people, five individuals who came together to create something, to make music and to complete each other musically, to form a perfect circle.

I think getting the rest of the guys in the band to write is important.

Being in a band is always a compromise. Provided that the balance is good, what you lose in compromise, you gain by collaboration.

Everybody was on the same page. Nobody has really gone out there on a different musical journey. When we got back together again, we all wanted to do the same kind of music.

With Pearl Jam, everybody is so good at what they do, it's hard to get up the courage to say, 'Can I sing this part,' or, 'I want to play guitar.'

I'll come in with a string of riffs and direct the musical ideas. But you still need a band and their input to make the ideas come alive. You can't underestimate band chemistry.