Band Hierarchy Quotes

If you're stuck at piano and you're not a lead guitarist or a lead vocalist, you're kind of at a nine-foot plank then and you should do something about it.

Bass players are always the underdogs of the band, but I made sure that I was never viewed as one. I went out of my way to steal as much limelight as I could.

Puffy's the only guy who's jealous. All drummers want to be singers. I think it's a myth that the singer needs to be the focus. Bands perpetuate that myth. With somebody like Sebastian Bach it makes sense. Look at him. He could be in an Avon ad.

In the high-stakes and elitist world of music collecting and fandom, we operate from an ab ovo perspective. The seed, the first incarnation - that is the most pure, the most lauded. Minutemen trumps Firehose, Throwing Muses beats Belly, Joy Division over New Order, Operation Ivy ruled Rancid, Undertones instead of That Petrol Emotion.

Although the Beatles were big to the world, within the business, we're all very, very equal.

I'll sing backgrounds, but a lead singer, you know, you've got to have that mentality and personality. I'd rather be the bass guy.

My cousins and I used to play Beatle wives. We all wanted to be married to Paul, but John was O.K. too. None of us wanted Ringo. Or even worse, George.

The drummer is stereotypically the dumb guy. Maybe that's why I always respect drummers who do more than drum.

Usually I can hear the pianos, the saxophone, and usually I can hear Ronnie. But I really need to listen to Keith and Mick. The rest of the band is sort of an embellishment to that.

I always wanted to be in this role, as a songwriter. In the Pumpkins, it was always impossible because Corgan would wake up and write five songs. He was so prolific, there wasn't a lot of room for anyone else.

There's no leader of this band, and there never will be. That's the key. You can't control how the public perceives you-people see rock'n'roll bands as the guitar player and the singer.

One of the main things we learned as a band in those days was not to be the headliner.

If you're the singer in the band, you always get more attention than anyone else.

We had no sleep or days off or anything like that and then, when the band became big, Hendrix became a star and looked down at us lot.

Everybody knows, when you have a band, there's always going to be a hierarchy, and there's always going to be some issue where ego gets involved and causes some kind of shake-up.

Ann and I were the main writers in Heart. We had the leadership role, and the guys in the band sometimes had a hard time with that.