If you call attention to yourself at the expense of the song, that's the cardinal sin.
You can go crazy and play solos in the right place, and that's great because it can intensify and bring an emotional lift. But the thing is you don't want to get in the way of the song.
Sometimes you work with somebody you've never heard of because you just feel like working.
I loved Mal Evans holding one note down on You Won't See Me from Rubber Soul.
I try to find little things that you can do to move the song along and things that serve the song.
I think we've always been better live.
Fortunately, as we all know, it's impossible for anybody but Jimmy Smith to really sound like Jimmy Smith.
I think I drift toward sad love songs.
I loved working with Bob Dylan.
I got to play on a couple of records with the Rolling Stones, and that was really special to me.
Jeff Lynne is an arranger, and I think it's probably much easier for him to go ahead and play a part himself than to try to show somebody else what he wants. But it's hard for me to say; I barely know Jeff.
We started with Denny Cordell, and he was a great record producer. He knew exactly how to take a band that knew absolutely nothing, and guide you without trying to tell you what to do.
Working with Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson takes you up another level.
I'm playing 10 feet from Mike Campbell every night. I look across the stage, there's Howie. Tom's in the middle and we're playing all this stuff I love. It's great.
