Tommy Bolin Quotes

#1. I started on drums when I was 13 and played them for two years. Then I went to guitar for a year, played keyboards for a year and a half, and went back to guitar.

Tommy Bolin

#2. I want the new band to work together for a while, and when we're ready we'll invite every major record company to see us.

Tommy Bolin

#3. Right now I feel so inspired, it's hard to believe. I've written about 20 songs in the last two days. I'd gone about four months without writing a thing.

Tommy Bolin

#4. You're in direct contact with the music by having the strings under your fingers. It's not mechanical like a piano.

Tommy Bolin

#5. I blew my voice out and the doctor said, don't even talk for a week.

Tommy Bolin

#6. I just started off on my own by learning the regular chords then the barre chords. Then I'd lean the notes that would go with them.

Tommy Bolin

#7. When you come from the Midwest, you have a more open mind than if you come from the West Coast or the East Coast.

Tommy Bolin

#8. When I got to LA and was with the James Gang, I got the opportunity to write a lot, to play in front of large audiences, make some money.

Tommy Bolin

#9. I used to try and take things in leaps and bounds. Now I've realized it's got to be step by step.

Tommy Bolin

#10. When I'm with Purple, I'm totally with Purple; when I'm doing my thing, I'm totally doing my own thing.

Tommy Bolin

#11. I replaced Walsh, I replaced Blackmore, now I just gotta be me.

Tommy Bolin

#12. I'll play drums a lot at home, and it will help my wrist action.

Tommy Bolin

#13. I came in with a completely new perspective. I would write songs and they would pick tunes they felt were in the Purple vein.

Tommy Bolin

#14. My first joint I smoked onstage in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I smoked my first joint live.

Tommy Bolin

#15. I have my own style, but it's different for each kind of music. There are certain little characteristic things every player has.

Tommy Bolin

#16. I can't do anything but play guitar.

Tommy Bolin

#17. If you're not having fun it's not worth doing.

Tommy Bolin

#18. A lot of times I wish I would have learned to read music, but I'm very impatient.

Tommy Bolin

#19. Once I was playing and moving around and I fell right on my back. Just straight on my back. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life.

Tommy Bolin

#20. The best money I made was panhandling.

Tommy Bolin

#21. For me, practice isn't doing scales but doing things like writing, jamming with other people, or playing gigs.

Tommy Bolin

#22. I'll hear something in my head, then eventually play it. But it's a subconscious thing. Most of the time I really don't know what I'm playing.

Tommy Bolin

#23. I'd rather work than not.

Tommy Bolin

#24. I learned a lot about lead; you don't have to blow your cookies in the first bar. It is much harder to be simple that to be complicated during solos.

Tommy Bolin

#25. When I first colored my hair, my mother loved it. I got kicked out of school when I was 15, just for my hair.

Tommy Bolin

#26. I can't see. I used to wear glasses off stage. Now I'm thinking of getting a pair of contract lenses.

Tommy Bolin

#27. How do you stop somebody from growing?

Tommy Bolin

#28. Lots of times it really doesn't matter what notes you play, but what notes come before and after a run.

Tommy Bolin

#29. I think the way I play the guitar is very percussive. I play a lot of rhythm chops as though I were playing congas or something.

Tommy Bolin

#30. Blues teaches you to develop coherent solos, because the form you're playing over is so basic. You have to develop leads that go someplace.

Tommy Bolin

#31. I used to listen a lot to Rolling Stones records and play along with them when I was first starting. It's a good way to learn, jamming around basic music.

Tommy Bolin

#32. A lot of things just got distorted, like stories about each other. After the tour we never talked. I believe a band should be a band.

Tommy Bolin

#33. My family were all musicians. I really wasn't interested in school or anything.

Tommy Bolin

#34. I don't like English bands. They're too structured.

Tommy Bolin

#35. All the different styles I've played have really helped me as a guitarist and helped me develop my own way of playing.

Tommy Bolin