Mayall's Quotes

#1. Strangely enough, I wasn't into fast guitarists. I preferred Peter Green's subtle touch. I saw him with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers at the Marquee Club in London and was very impressed. He was the only guitarist I've ever seen to turn the volume control on his guitar down during a solo.

Alvin Lee

#2. Lightnin' Hopkins was something of a fixture on the Houston coffee house scene so we were witness to eccentric blues brilliance close up. Then, believe it or not, along came the wave of the English cats like John Mayall, Eric Clapton and the Stones embracing the great American art form - the blues.

Billy Gibbons

#3. Everybody always wants to be a mermaid

Beth Mayall

#4. Working with people, the musical part is one thing but the personal part is totally different and just as critical. If the friendship is there and it's a lasting friendship, then it will take care of itself.

John Mayall

#5. Love is the answer.

Rik Mayall

#6. I ought to be groovy and be able to say the enemy is this and the enemy is that ... but I've never been very good at ... I don't want to have to answer questions I don't know the answer to properly. I have an opinion.

Rik Mayall

#7. I keep healthy and I'm always very active and always have been so. I don't really see any signs of aging yet. Music keeps you young.

John Mayall

#8. Words on the page don't have the same impact as somebody saying the words to you.

Rik Mayall

#9. You perform for a different audience each night. People who don't understand just think that you go out there every night and do the same thing, but you don't - you have to find out who they are and give it to them.

Rik Mayall

#10. I don't have moments of weakness. I'm Rik Mayall.

Rik Mayall

#11. Everybody I know in England was raised on Mose Allison.

John Mayall

#12. To me, they are equally important, as they represent a certain period in my life and times. With that in mind, it really is impossible to pick favorites.

John Mayall

#13. It's difficult for me, to look into eyes of a journalist and trust him to present it as you say.

Rik Mayall

#14. Other people get moody in their forties and fifties - men get the male menopause. I missed the whole thing. I was just really happy.

Rik Mayall

#15. Joe's been my drummer for 14 years, and we've been buddies for six years.

John Mayall

#16. Check out the albums, ... Check out the live performances. That's the reality of it all. Music is such an energizing thing.

John Mayall

#17. The way I look at it, they're all part of my musical diary, and I can listen to any one of them and it will bring up memories of what was going on at that time.

John Mayall

#18. With an audience it's now, there are no editors around. It's just me and the audience and it's what I like best.

Rik Mayall

#19. I live on the limit, Vyvyan. The limit, because I'm a rider at the gates of dawn and I take no prisoners!

Rik Mayall

#20. I was in a coma for five days - I was dead longer than Jesus before he was raised from the dead.

Rik Mayall

#21. I would love to do more on the stage; having actual contact with the audience is great. You can give them a good seeing to!

Rik Mayall

#22. I was brought up to be a good boy and proud of myself so I suppress all the things about me that are bad.

Rik Mayall

#23. I never really thought about becoming a professional musician.

John Mayall

#24. I do the best I can with any instrument I get attracted to. But they're just tools in order for you to express yourself and that's really the upshot of it.

John Mayall

#25. I get most of my news from the Jon Stewart Daily Show. It's the most level commentary you can find. You have to laugh, because it's all so true. It's the closest thing to a counterculture.

John Mayall

#26. My early influences were the Shadows, who were an English instrumental band. They basically got me into playing and later on I got into blues and jazz players. I liked Clapton when he was with John Mayall. I really liked that period.

Tony Iommi

#27. With 1,000-seater venues, rather than 5,000-seaters, there are richer opportunities for sucking the audience in.

Rik Mayall

#28. On stage you can group 200 people together and scare them or embarrass them or whatever. You can't do that on TV. You have to use the conventions, that's why Kevin (Turvey) works so well.

Rik Mayall

#29. I also went to art school and learned to play a piano there, but I play by ear.

John Mayall

#30. I always make it a point to pick songs on which players really shine.

John Mayall

#31. I'm frightened of interviews.

Rik Mayall

#32. When you're an experienced celeb - which I am - you sometimes just need a bit of space, when you're not 'on'. I'm always on!

Rik Mayall

#33. I don't want people to know who I am.

Rik Mayall

#34. I had a very happy childhood, happy teenage years and I was famous by the time I was 22. A charmed life.

Rik Mayall

#35. Once you start collecting records you learn more and more about jazz and blues.

John Mayall

#36. I write songs about real things ... The subject dictates the mood and it goes from there, really.

John Mayall

#37. I went to see John Mayall at the Marquee, with Peter Green on guitar, and that was a particularly good gig.

Alvin Lee

#38. You have to pack as much as you can in an hour or 70 minutes. This time around it was 15 songs, so it was a challenge to get them all the right length so you could get them all on.

John Mayall

#39. I've always had live audiences.

Rik Mayall