Who's to say what's a good voice and not a good voice?
CBGB was a wild place, ... The first time I ever played there was in 1987, I think, with my hardcore band, Scream. And I remember the craziest [thing] about that club was you could be in front of the stage and it could be louder than any show you've ever been to in your life. But if you were towards the back of the club at the bar, you could sit and have a conversation with someone. It was the weirdest thing to me.
I love everything about my job, except being away from the kids.
I guess it was exciting that every time I pulled up to the gate of my house, I wondered if someone was going to jump out of the bush and stab me in the face.
Actually, I didn't start sweating until I had children.
I think maybe what happened was the convenience of technology overshadowed the experience of holding an album in your hands, and sitting on your bedroom floor, and staring at a picture of John Lennon or Gene Simmons or Johnny Rotten. That tangible experience can sometimes become an even more emotional experience, because it's really happening.
CBGB represents a lot to New York City and to underground rock and to new wave and post-punk and whatever. But, you know, it's like tearing down the Jefferson Memorial or something.
I always loved writing songs - writing for myself and demo-ing songs, really with no intention of ever letting anyone else hear them.
When it comes to making an album I take that very seriously. I am meticulous, overworked. That's my time to put everything under the microscope.
It's nice when people are happy to hear that you're still alive, rather than feeling like "Oh, finally he's dead?"
When you're recording to tape, you usually just settle for what you have. There's not a lot of options to manipulate the performance.
For every Foo Fighters record, we've had two or three beautiful, acoustic-based songs, but they never usually make their way to the record, because we want to make rock records.
I hate the solo artist aspect of rock-'n'-roll. I don't have enough personality or charisma to be a solo star.
Most of our songs were written on acoustic guitar before they made it to the practice stage.
My first instrument was actually the trombone, but that didn't last long. Soon I was playing guitar in bands from the time I was 11 or 12.
I'm big on taking the lady out to dinner. We have some candlelight romance every now and then. And our whole family is within a 6-mile radius. It's disgustingly domestic. I'm big on Costco.
There's a reason why the Foo Fighters don't blast out Nirvana songs every night: because we have a lot of respect for them. You know, that's hallowed ground. We have to be careful. We have to tread lightly. We have talked about it before, but the opportunity hasn't really come up, or it just hasn't felt right.
When I was a teenager, working towards dropping out of high school to starting to tour with bands, I'd drive around in my VW Bug every morning before school, very stoned listening over and over to Zeppelin. This song got to me because it just seemed mystical. There is something about those Celtic tunings that almost sounds Eastern. Somehow it would sweep me up into my own little trance-like state, like Sting with those shamans in the Amazon. But all I had was a bong and a Led Zeppelin cassette.
When digital technology started becoming the norm, you've got 50, 60, 70 years of recordings on tapes that are just deteriorating. Like, a two-inch reel of recording tape won't last forever. It dissolves. It will disappear.
What I really miss these days in music - is the music. I prefer to listen to melodies and songs, not just sounds.
Going out and playing music - that's what I do. I don't do much else.
There are times when I feel like I'm a traveling minister. I'm trying to go out and get kids to pick-up yard sale instruments and change the world.
With this record [The Colour and the Shape], I started taking the lyrics more seriously. This is a very personal album.
I'm so not macho. It's crazy. My man cave is so not a man cave.
A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they're stuck in that safe place.
