I listen to somebody like Shawn Lane, and unfortunately he is no longer with us, but I hear him playing and I am like, 'That is just absolutely ridiculous.'
I never thought 'Stairway to Heaven' was a long song. I loved how there was this part and then there was another part that was completely different.
I grew up listening to classic rock - the Kinks, Genesis, The Who, Pink Floyd.
A Jethro Tull album was - along with Cream and Led Zeppelin - one of the first I ever bought.
England in the '60s and the '70s was everything that history has said; it was phenomenally exciting, musically.
I'm a child of the 70's; influenced mostly by albums that had a wide variety of style.
I was talking to my dad about the stuff he grew up listening to, and 'Operation: Mindcrime' is a record that he had always talked about around the house. He always talked about it as the 'greatest concept album of all time.' One day, I started listening to it, and it just hit me. I was like, 'These songs are all hits. They're all huge songs.'
I listen to a lot of Pink Floyd, the Doors, Elton John, Sabbath, Metallica, GN'R, Megadeth - just classic rock, classic metal stuff.
Flying Colors is more alternative pop with a prog edge. Think the Beatles meets U2 meets Muse and Foo Fighters. It is the opposite of Adrenaline Mob, which has more classic metal influences like Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Pantera, or Disturbed. They are completely different ends of spectrum.
Every time the mainstream media talk about progressive rock, they wheel out a clip of Rick Wakeman in a cape. For me, it's one of the most ambitious forms of music. The problem is that when it doesn't work, you end up with Emerson, Lake and Palmer doing symphonies with 60-piece orchestras and revolving pianos, which I think is ridiculous as well.
My dad was a big Frank Zappa fan, so I remember listening to a lot of Frank Zappa. Girls do not like Frank Zappa.
I love 'Dogman' by King's X and Living Colour's 'Stain.'
'Europe '72' was a super influential record full of fantastic songs and amazing experimental musicianship. I always valued both of those aspects in what Sonic Youth has done through the years - being able to get very abstract and very concrete within the same song.
I hated most music in the 1970s, especially disco, but Bowie was edgier.
I was always a Pink Floyd fan, and I was always into movie soundtracks.
Music-wise, I listen to everything. Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman - I guess I like a lot of '70s music.
There are so many people out there who think they are fans of Pink Floyd - and certainly the work I did in Pink Floyd - who are still furious that I left.
Pink Floyd, the most successful progressive rock band of all time, have stood the test of time because the emphasis was always on melody and atmosphere.
King Crimson is never easy; it's challenging. That's why I like it.
As the years go by, I realize how unique a style rock music is and how delicate you have to be with it sometimes; otherwise, you turn it into pop music or progressive rock or something else.
'This Is My Rifle' is a kind of tribute to Al Di Meola.
I'm not sure at all about the current prog rock scene.
The Moody Blues was very big in France, because they liked that we were basically playing blues.
Two of my favorite bands, Blackberry Smoke and Black Stone Cherry, I just think both of those bands are a good new progressive kind of Southern Rock that's a little different than us but still has a rootsy thing going on.
Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson have rejoined and gone off again and rejoined, but I've been there the whole time, and even though Alan White is the 'new' drummer, he has been there since 1972, so he also deserves the credit for being around for 20 years.
