Music Controversy Quotes

I guess the majority of people who want to ban certain musicians are the ones who are so proud of everything America stands for.

Bob Dylan was really mad with my wife. I had asked by Rolling Stone - the only assignment I ever had for them - to do a story on the Rolling Thunder Review, which was Bob Dylan, Alan Ginsberg, Joan Baez and a host of stars. My wife, some weeks before, had written in The New York Times that The Kid wasn't The Kid anymore and he wasn't all that winning anymore.

I wouldn't specifically say rock n' roll is dead, but I don't see a lot of charismatic performers in the way of new blood who are edgy and dangerous on stage, like Marilyn Manson, who you never quite know if he's going to make it through his own show.

Etta James takes credit for writing some of the lyrics on 'I'd Rather Go Blind,' which I think are some of the most phenomenal lyrics I've ever heard. There's arguments now about who wrote it, but she always takes credit for it in her live performances.

I don't mind talking about the Dixie Chicks, because I feel like it's still alive and kicking.

They were worried we wouldn't get any radio play at all[ for "A Deal with God" ]. That's why it was changed [to "Running Up That Hill"].

Too bad that Paul Ryan confessed to being a fan of Rage Against The Machine. By doing so, he not only begged for a bucketing by many of their fans but actually got one from the band's guitar player, Tom Morello.

When I lived in Nashville, Tanya Tucker and people like that were coming up, and I'm sure that Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette were going, 'What's that noise? That's not country.' It's always been this battle where whoever comes up behind the reigning stars isn't country enough. There really is a lot more crossover now.

I think my music's more disturbing than Tupac's - or at least I thought some of the themes of 'The Downward Spiral' were more disturbing on a deeper level - you know, issues about suicide and hating yourself and God and people and everything else.

If some of those people who wanted to ban Beethoven's music could hear the music that's being played today, wow, what would they do, man?

We had an extreme reaction to Storm Corrosion. We were proud of it, but it divided the audience. The metal fans were divided. Some went with it. Some hated it, since it wasn't the progressive metal supergroup they were waiting for.

Jazz is a racist musical form invented by whites to enslave blacks.

When Will.I.Am punched Perez Hilton, I immediately purchased a bunch of their music.

I did write a letter to the archdiocese who'd banned the song, Only the Good Die Young, asking them to ban my next record.

When Phil and I started out, everyone hated rock n' roll. The record companies didn't like it at all - felt it was an unnecessary evil. And the press: interviewers were always older than us, and they let you know they didn't like your music, they were just doing the interview because it was their job.

Using music to promote hate seems to be the bastardisation of music to me.

I played in a death-metal band. People either loved us or hated us. Or they thought we were OK.

We've always been a polarizing band.

'Black Skinhead' almost got deaded because it was too much like a soccer song.

Don't you think it's kind-of cool to have a band that offends MTV, that puts out a video that real fans have to dig around for, or stay up late to see?

Rock and roll is a music, and why should a music contribute to ... juvenile delinquency? If people are going to be juvenile delinquents, they're going to be delinquents if they hear ... Mother Goose rhymes.

At first, because this genre of music was so urban, sometimes we would sing songs that were so aggressive. And my parents didn't like it. They would break my cassettes and say, 'That music is garbage.'

I'd fired anyone who was involved with Creed. I didn't want anything to do with the music business. The entire press and industry hated me, so what was the point?

Rock's always been the devil's music.

The Smiths are singing and someone says "Turn that gay angst music off.