People don't understand what music really is. I've been a musician since I was 6 years old. I got my first piano, was playing recitals at 8, 10 I picked up a guitar, 12 I picked up my first Pearl Master drum set. I was an artist before I was an 'artist.'
I ended up starting guitar because I didn't want to just be the lead singer.
My major influences were primarily guitar players and bands; I started playing bass by accident.
I can't remember when I didn't have an instrument around.
I never picked a bass up before Sabbath started.
I started as a guitarist and couldn't find a decent singer, so I started providing my own vocals.
In the future, I would like to become a missionary. I'd like to go to countries where I have received much love as a musician and personally return all of that love.
My goal was to play 350-capacity rooms in the U.K. and, if I was lucky, 100-capacity rooms in Europe. I just wanted to play music and make money off it.
I was an opening act for 10 years.
One day, I just decided I'm ready to go. So I went down with my guitar and sat on the front steps of Sam Phillips recording studio.
Songs do write themselves through you; I know people find it hard to believe, but it's true.
I have always been a singer, a writer, and a musician, not as a prodigy or as in a trade handed to me by my parents, but because of an inner voice or maybe a command from beyond reality as it is usually defined.
According to my parents, I just started drumming when I was two. I traveled with them from five to seven on the road, playing percussion. Between 8 and 12, my dad sort of prepared me by teaching me every aspect of road life.
I was minding my own business when something says to me, "you ought to blow trumpet." I have just been trying ever since.
When I first went from a band situation to a solo situation, it was quite an adjustment to make. But after having done it for a number of years, it really feels good out there.
Performers are the neediest people in the world. Unless you've been in that goldfish bowl - nobody can judge unless they've worn those shoes.
I don't think you can learn to be a complete musician. That has to come from within, and it entails a lot of sacrifice.
I started out in the folk music world only because of the way my songs were written and performed, with just an acoustic guitar, but I always related to the rock n' roll lifestyle.
I'm not a very spiritual guy when it comes to music. I remember hearing Carlos Santana say that angels helped him write his songs. And I thought, 'Really, angels?'
I was doing without for so long, not knowing the things that are normal for musicians. I was getting bookings regardless, people phoning or emailing me direct, and journalists were writing about me anyway.
There's a huge difference between who I am when I make music and who I am the rest of the time.
I had been writing songs for awhile - since I was 14 - and playing guitar, but I never really knew how to go about making an actual career.
I'm constantly evolving as a musician.
I didn't have my first band until I was, like, 30.
I'm tired of being in a band, but I do want to continue making records and performing, at least a little bit. Making the records isn't always fun. It's fun to be finished with them. Making beautiful things can be quite painful.
