Musical Excellence Quotes

People like Prince don't have to care about anything, but they care because they want music for the future to be great.

We want to be good at our craft, whether it's writing music or playing it live.

A great solo does not make a great piece. Rather, a great solo in a great song - that's what makes a 10 out of 10. It's the combination of emotional feel and inventive ideas.

The Japanese actually approach the music on a high level. It's always been on a high level.

I take my fundamental cue from John Coltrane that says there must be a priority of integrity, honesty, decency, and mastery of craft.

To me, music is not a stunt. Music is not a joke. I take every lick of music that I've ever played very serious.

Starting a band is the easy part. Once you've formed the band, you have to tell a story, and that story requires songs. And not just good songs, but great songs. After a while, great songs won't do - they have to be the best. Success doesn't make it any easier. Each time I start a new record, it's a brand-new search.

High achievements in art, music, etc., are the results of concentration.

I've always thought that whether I'm writing or not, I've gotta pick the best songs, whether or not they're mine. I'm not gonna sing them just because I wrote them. I've gotta find the best songs to make the best record I can.

I've had the honor of sitting in with the Allmans at their Beacon shows a couple of times, and it just doesn't get better than that.

I surround myself with incredible musicians who inspire me to always do my best.

Just make good music.

The Beatles were perfect. There's just no other way to say it. They were the perfect band.

The writers that I aspire to, like Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman, they'll tell you that the work gets harder, not easier. And they set that bar for us where we're always striving to do something better than the last time, whether it's the next song or just the next line.

I love when people are coming up and they're working hard and you can see that they're really focused on the process to their music. I really dig that. As a musician, it's nice to see people who really care about the process.

I'm not God's gift to rockabilly. There's great players out there, and some of them deserve a lot more than they've gotten.

I think the biggest influence for me is when I hear a great piece of music, whatever the style, I'm kind of inspired by that greatness and I'm inspired to try and obtain something that comes close to that greatness.

The GRAMMY was a huge deal. It's the height of any musical career.

I saw Al Foster with Miles Davis the other week. It was beautiful. But, the whole thing was, Al Foster played as well as everybody else, but all of them were quite brilliant under Miles Davis' direction.

My talent is my talent. I ain't really tripping off no ego; I just like to make good music with good people.

It is a privilege and an honor to perform on Steinway pianos.

To actually put the time and energy into an album that would be better than Pull would be a hell of a lot of work, because I took that band really seriously, way more seriously than people took us. If you go back and listen to the records, you can hear it.

I pride myself on working with great musicians.

The Royal Opera House? I once had the immense privilege of appearing there and was awed by the air of refinement of those seemingly ethereal beings who floated about in the highest echelons of musical accomplishment, effortlessly producing virtuoso performances in several different languages.

Music is all about wanting to be better at it.