Great Band Quotes

#1. They sounded really professional because they had two Vox AC 30 amplifiers. I also had an AC 30, so when you looked at it, three AC 30s, three Fenders - bloody hell, it must be a great band!

Tony Iommi

#2. Having solidarity is important and having conviction and sticking with it and also consistency. You can't just have one good record, or a couple of good singles, you have to continue making good music to be considered to be a great band. Having some degree of integrity, that's it in one word.

Ryan Jarman

#3. I listen to Helmet - and I love Helmet, they're a great band - but every song sounds the same.

Adam Jones

#4. U2 are a great band; they've given us an unbelievable body of work, and all of us musicians owe them at least something. I can honestly say that every time I have played the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, as soon as my drums are set up, I go into the beat of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday.'

Jimmy Chamberlin

#5. I'd always thought the Rats were good fun, but one of the very nice things about being of Saga age is that I can actually look back and think, When I was younger I was in a great band. It was always a collective thing.

Bob Geldof

#6. I look back on Joy Division very fondly indeed. I know that, of course, the band came to a tragic end, but that does not change the fact that Joy Division was a great band to be a part of.

Peter Hook

#7. I'm a keen musician. Me and my mates have a great times jamming and recording stuff. We have a great band behind us and have turned my nursery-rhyme songs into quite credible pieces of music.

Tom Felton

#8. I spent five years, at least, working with Miles. Together, we recorded ESP, Nefertiti, Sorcerer
and I can tell you; each of these albums instantly became jazz classics. Hey, we had Wayne Shorter playing tenor sax, Ron [Carter] on bass, Tony Williams played drums. That was great band we had.

Herbie Hancock

#9. The beatles were always a great band. nothing more nothing less

Paul McCartney

#10. Band members have a special bond. A great band is more than just some people working together. It's like a highly specialized army unit, or a winning sports team. A unique combination of elements that becomes stronger together than apart.

Steven Van Zandt

#11. I create my own lyrics. I have a great band. I have a drummer from East Berlin.

Nina Hagen

#12. I look upon The Animals, they were a great band initially, we left our mark, but thing was it was a band that couldn't live up to its name so I soldiered on. On one level, it was devastating for a while. On another level, maybe I should thank them for helping me make my own way in my own career.

Eric Burdon

#13. I don't really listen to the radio anymore, but some of the more contemporary people I like are Stereolab, Spiritualize, Yo La Tengo and Bedhead. There are other things too, like Pavement. They're a great band, with really good lyrics. But generally, I'm not overwhelmed by the state of indie-rock.

Dean Wareham

#14. I guess I've never been introduced properly to Pink Floyd. I know they're great, don't get me wrong. Excellent, excellent musicians; great band; awesome harmony; great song writers; I just don't know anything besides, I guess, the popular songs on the radio.

Phil Anselmo

#15. I have a great band, with very talented players, and we give everything we have every night.

John Legend

#16. To be a great band it's like you have that telepathy. You know when the bass player's in back of you without even looking. You know when your guitar player's coming up to you to lean up to you and sing into your microphone. You just know these things. You feel it. You feel the energy of it.

Scott Weiland

#17. Average band with a great drummer sounds great, great band with an average drummer sounds average.

Buddy Rich

#18. I bought it [sha la la la lee] because of steve marriotts voice. I didnt realise until recently it was written by kenny lynch. I'm not at all embarrassed, great song and great band.

Carl Palmer

#19. I have a great band. Oh, man. I'm so happy about them.

St. Vincent

#20. I have such a great band. We had played all this material on the road. I just wanted to let it fly.

Lucinda Williams

#21. I'm just really happy, because I think we're a great band, and I really like great bands.

Krist Novoselic

#22. Well, a sort of epiphany: I was in a great band. And it's very cool to be at 53 and realise that when you were a kid you were in a great band.

Bob Geldof

#23. If you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with a great drummer, you have a great band!

Duke Ellington

#24. He grins to himself as he thinks of his little cabal, this great band of warriors consisting of an old woman, a passion-struck fool, and a man with a feeble mind. At least they've all got the loyalty part right.

T.J. Klune

#25. To me, when a great band is playing together, it's amazing for me.

John Oates

#26. I miss THE WALLFLOWERS. Great band. Wrote my first Fan letter to them. No response.

Charisma Carpenter

#27. Occasionally, a great band would come along, like Blondie or OutKast who could be pop and bring interesting ideas into the mainstream at the same time. That's now gone, because of this weird mutation of pop, rap, R&B, bad rave, and supposedly soulful singing on top of it.

Johnny Marr

#28. I'm not a great band member; I'm more of a band leader.

J. D. Souther

#29. Dire Straits is a great band. Someone tells you they like 'Brothers in Arms' and immediately you know they're a stupid annoying git.

Alexei Sayle

#30. Badfinger were a great band

Jane Wiedlin

#31. We really put together a great band, and have a great time.

Steve Brown

#32. I'm not going to say I'll never rock with a band, because I'm too much of a fan of the aesthetic of a great band. But a girl group? Not again.

Dawn Angelique

#33. The great thing about rock-n-roll is you realize the top of the mountain is big enough for more than one band.

Paul Stanley

#34. I get a lot from great '90s artists like Juliana Hatfield, The Pixies, and bands like That Dog and The Breeders.

Margaret Cho

#35. It was great to be the rock comic, the shock comic. But after you've played Giants Stadium with Bon Jovi in front of 82,000 people, after you've done the 'Wild Thing' video with Jessica Hahn and every rock band from hell, you're not gonna top that.

Sam Kinison

#36. Being a writer is great, and being a parent is great, and I hate Marching Band.

MaryJanice Davidson

#37. There are three things we need to do for a band. We need to make a great record; we need to get the record played; and we need to find an audience for the live shows.

Kiefer Sutherland

#38. For me, a great show is when there's a great rapport with the band and the audience, and we're all really into it. The first trick is to bring the audience into the band, break the ice, have a life, and be one, so you can enjoy the next hour and a half together.

Andy Summers

#39. The first time I ever recorded, which was into my boom-box, I was like, 'Wow, check that out.' It sounded great. The narcotic of it was so intense - it was pleasurable. I was like, 'You sound like a band.' Then I ended up spending the rest of my life trying to chase that initial high again.

Ian MacKaye

#40. It's great when a huge amount of money goes from a dumb corporation into the hands of an awesome band with brilliant ideas who can use it to keep being a band for a year, as opposed to a band that's already huge taking one of those things - that's more pathetic.

Alex Scally

#41. I think One Direction are the biggest band in the world, their songs are great,

Chris Martin

#42. The Bad Seeds are a band I will travel a great distance to see whenever possible.

Henry Rollins

#43. I thought [ as a kid], "Maybe I don't want to start a punk band necessarily. I just want to learn to be a great songwriter," and got really into trying to figure out how that could be possible.

Ezra Furman

#44. There are days where maybe the obstacle is too great, maybe I don't want to get up and go to classes or attend that marching band practice, but whenever I have those days, I just realize that I have to get it done and everything will turn out great in the end.

Patrick Henry Hughes

#45. I enjoy playing with a big band occasionally, but it's too restricting; you really don't have a chance to stretch out and do what you want to do. Getting that thing of relating to a large band is great experience; I relate much better, though, if it's a small band.

Art Pepper

#46. To call Clive Barker a 'horror novelist' would be like calling the Beatles a 'garage band' ... He is the great imaginer of our time. He knows not only our greatest fears, but also what delights us, what turns us on, and what is truly holy in the world. Haunting, bizarre, beautiful.

Quentin Tarantino

#47. Touring with Yes was generally great fun, and I got on well with the rest of the guys, but we were like chalk and cheese in many respects. I was unique in the band as a card-carrying Conservative.

Rick Wakeman

#48. I haven't a great jazz band, and I don't want one.

Glenn Miller

#49. I think Queen tribute bands are great. However, we have to keep them at arm's length, otherwise it could be too dangerous.

Brian May

#50. I like working with great talent, in every capacity. I have a rule of thumb, in any creative endeavor - whether I'm doing music and playing in a band, or working with producers, or directing - where I generally like to work with people who are smarter than me or better than me.

Malik Yoba

#51. When I auditioned for my high school band the band director was excited because my father was known to be a great musician. When he heard me, he said 'Are you sure you're Ellis's son?'

Wynton Marsalis

#52. The Ruts were a great punk rock band from England whose songs were as excellent as their time together was short.

Henry Rollins

#53. Democracy can tie your hands in a rock 'n' roll band, you know? It can be a great thing, but if you've got a certain amount of vision and you write a lot of songs, it's sometimes better to have your own band and make your own decisions.

Jason Isbell

#54. My husband works in the music industry and he's always the first to know about great new bands, so I end up seeming really with it because I'll be listening to an up-and-coming band before everyone else hears about it.

Gail Simmons

#55. Clive remained behind Simon's knees.
Simon's Knees . . .
What a great name for a band.

Alice Clayton

#56. It is with great disappointment and regret that after having the privilege of writing and performing the music of The Black Crowes over the last 24 years, I find myself in the position of saying that the band has broken up.

Rich Robinson

#57. Support is really important to me. It's quite a responsibility when people are paying for tickets. I've spent ten years playing for free, now it's like, bloody hell people are spending a tenner and I want it to be a great show and I really don't subscribe to having a crap support band.

KT Tunstall

#58. Magne Furuholmen is a very dear friend of mine. A-ha are a classic pop band and they've got some brilliant songs. I'd say 'The Living Daylights' was one of my favourite Bond tunes: regardless of it being a Bond song, it stands alone as a great piece of music.

Guy Berryman

#59. Oasis were the last great, traditional rock-n'-roll band. We came along before the Internet so, if you wanted to see us, you had to be there. It makes me feel like a righteous old man.

Noel Gallagher

#60. We used to play the underground clubs like the UFO, and Middle Earth, and they were great because they would have on things like a poet, string quartets, and then a rock band! It was kinda cool!

Alvin Lee

#61. It's really exciting working with a new band when you feel like you hit something that's great, and you helped them bring something out.

Jerry Harrison

#62. A slow band can be great. A slow 100-metres runner is just obsolete.

Gylve Nagell

#63. Ben was more improvisational, and relied less on methodology, and basically is a guitarist who switched to bass, whereas Jeff has a more traditional approach to playing bass in a band, and has a great sense of what his band sounds like, and we lock up nicely.

Matt Cameron

#64. I wish I played guitar so I could start a band with great musicians.

Diplo

#65. I'm a terrible musician. While the band members are great, I'm tolerated and affectionately regarded because I do movies, but if I had to make my living as a musician I would starve. I'm like a Sunday tennis player.

Woody Allen

#66. There's a great rock and roll scene in Sweden. There are many smaller bands like ourselves that are great. Oh yes, there's a band called Eggstone, they're really good, and a band called the Soundtrack Of Our Lives, which is excellent.

Nina Persson

#67. One of the great things about having good players in your band is that you just ask them questions. You can pick up some good information that way.

Bill Bruford

#68. I realized that the people I want to impress most are already in my band. If I just do my best and try to write great songs and then collaborate with these guys and try to make a great record, that's my best path to success.

Ed Robertson

#69. I originally wanted to be a singer, but I was average. I made 18 records, but none were that great. I was in a dance band at Bournemouth Pavilion for three years, and I played guitar too.

Tony Blackburn

#70. It feels like it's just starting in America and the UK. It's great to have a loyal fanbase in Australia and New Zealand. People in America say how polished our band are, but that didn't happen overnight; that came from doing all this touring back home.

Kimbra

#71. The music industry is not what it used to be. Being in a good band is great, and I've been lucky to be in great bands. I've done solo stuff, and that's been great. I also produce rock bands and I do co-writes, where I write with different singers in bands and songwriters.

James Iha

#72. I have a great time with my band and on the stage we get along well.

Lenny Kravitz

#73. Why do want to find him so bad?' I ask after a while, but she's not listening. I watch her a bit
longer. 'Why do you want to find him so bad?' I ask again.
She blinks and comes out of her dream. She flicks the band on her wrist. 'I just do.' - Ed Skye

Cath Crowley

#74. I think all of us, at some point early on in our lives, knew that we wanted to create music. We are still really young and sometimes we do feel like we have to prove were as great as all the rest of the bands -old and young. But we just do what we love and people seem to be really excited about it.

Hayley Williams

#75. It's a 360-degree sound experience. Like you're in the middle of the band. A lot of people have the technology to play the format, so why not put it out there. It sounds great.

Aaron Neville

#76. A band is a great way to destroy a friendship, and a tour's a great way to destroy a band.

Julian Casablancas

#77. I don't know a lot about New Zealand except that it is beautiful! All of my friends in bands who have toured there have said great things about it so I hope I can go perform there soon!

Dia Frampton

#78. I am very proud of my musical growth and contributions to the band in the last four years. I have nothing but positive thoughts and feelings towards John, Mike, James, and John. Jordan Rudess is a friend of mine and a great talent. I wish all of them the very best!

Derek Sherinian

#79. Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus.

Thomas Jefferson

#80. You shouldn't end a band like Westlife and not be financially secure to some extent, but I wasn't at all - it was the complete opposite. But you look at stuff then, 'Well, what do I have? I don't have money but I have a great marriage, three healthy kids, and I have my voice. I'll just start again.'

Shane Filan

#81. The guys in my band are great-we watch movies, we eat pizza, take walks, read books. Everybody has a really great sense of humor. And my boyfriend comes and visits me on the road.

Lisa Loeb

#82. And I came back and it was great, 'cuz George had set up all these flowers all over the studio saying welcome home. So then we got it together again. I always felt it was better on the White one for me. We were more like a band, you know.

Ringo Starr

#83. I think that Phish has been a band, we've all had- I've had a great life growing up and everybody in my band's had a really good life, none of us have got anything to complain about at all.

Jon Fishman

#84. You know, who cares about seeing the girls when everybody wants to see the band. That's what's important, KISS is important. I think we look great, and the attitude is there, and I'm real happy with it.

Eric Carr

#85. They've gone to great length to disguise the fact that I'm not in the band, even sending out a photo to promoters with my picture in it which then winds up in some of the ads on the flyers.

Jello Biafra

#86. For every great thing we did, there is a very public moment of falling on our faces. But everything that came through us as a band was a distinct vision of R.E.M.

Michael Stipe

#87. When daybreak came we were zooming through New Jersey with the great cloud of Metropolitan New York rising before us in the snowy distance. Dean had a sweater wrapped around his ears to keep warm. He said we were a band of Arabs coming in to blow up New York.

Jack Kerouac

#88. Pushing thoughts of spanking and Simon from my mind, I went back to my DVDs. Spanking Simon. What a great name for a band.

Alice Clayton

#89. Josh is the guy in the band who's just so friendly and super, wanting to walk up to you and say, 'Hey, I'm Josh. I drum in this band, and I'm a big fan of you, and I really appreciate what you do.' Josh has all these great friends in the industry now.

Tyler Joseph

#90. And I thought of a cresting wave of water, lit by a moon, rushing past and vanishing upstream, pursued by a band of yelping students whose torchbeams criss-crossed in the dark. There is accumulation. There is responsibility. And beyond these, there is unrest. There is great unrest.

Julian Barnes

#91. There are many great bands of perception in the universe. There are both organic and inorganic bands of perception.

Frederick Lenz

#92. The great thing about the Wilburys was that none of us had to take the heat by ourselves. I was just a member of the band. Nobody felt like he was above anybody else. We had such a good time.

Tom Petty

#93. A lot of bands that are great disappear a little bit faster than they used to. They don't get as much support for the long haul. You have to be pretty tough to hang in there.

Judd Apatow

#94. When the wind came it split the sky and shouldered the cloud-band left and right; unbarring great clear furnaces of rolling gold.

G.K. Chesterton

#95. I'm more of an actor than a musician. I've made a little name for myself as an actor, but I also front this band. We have some great players out here, and we've found a little niche with L.A. Hootenanny.

Todd Lowe

#96. I met Scott Stapp when the band was first coming up, great guy. I haven't seen him for years, but a great guy.

Billy Corgan

#97. Just because you put super great musicians together, it doesn't mean you're going to have that chemistry as a band.

Brian Setzer

#98. A lot of modern amps and preamps sound great when you're jamming by yourself, but don't hold up in a band situation. The sound isn't dense enough, and the lows and highs tend to get soaked up by the bass and cymbals.

James Hetfield

#99. It can and will be a more powerful sound but the orchestra has far more potential for expressive power. When I hear a great rock band it can make me feel alive, but when I hear a great orchestra it can make me feel human.

Glenn Branca

#100. These so-called governments are in reality only great bands of robbers and murderers, organized, disciplined, and constantly on the alert.

Lysander Spooner