Still...you turn me on
There is no standing still because time is moving forward.
Music is an emotional experience, and that is what imprints itself on the soul.
The greatest music is made for love, not for money.
Unless you go forward then you are going back.
As I said to Ringo, I was in a successful Rock N Roll band. He was in a band that changed the world. That's the difference.
I think for me, any great art is art which communicates human emotion.
When you play music with someone who has a heart rather than playing with someone who is just doing it for money or is cynical it makes all the difference.
I understand travel. I understand the experience of travel. I mean there is something of the "air-conditioned gypsy" in me.
Songwriting is never one thing. I've spent as long as three months writing a song. Other times I've done it in twenty minutes.
Again there are so many records which contain fond memories and music and songs of which I have to say I am quite proud. There are a couple of tracks which in retrospect on which I now wish I had pushed the red button, however I'm sure this is true of any artist career that has spanned the number of years that mine has. I do not believe however that I have ever made a bad record and I have certainly never made a record to which I didn't give my complete commitment.
Making a comeback is one of the most difficult things to do with dignity.
You want each city to be different, not just see the same shopping malls and stores wherever you go. That's not healthy.
I continue to write. It's just one of those things that I do. I'll have periods when I write and periods when I don't. But you don't want it to become a discipline really. If it becomes a discipline, it becomes a chore and that's no good.
I would like to involve myself in some black music. I would like to do some blues and some gospel music. I want to try stuff from other genres and try to widen my musical base.
I like the sense of the road passing my eyes. It's always a fascinating experience to come into a new city...the sense of the people changing, the food changing, everything changing, the art.
The early ELP albums were pioneering in a way.
I feel with ELP that I wasn't making the most of my life and I wasn't making the most of my creativity. I was marking time. I don't want to do that. Life is to short.
As long as people want to hear me play and as long as I'm able to play, then I will. I enjoy playing and performing. If I wasn't doing that, what else would I do?
To make art you need to be inspired.
When you are in a band for a number of years you loose your identity in a way. You become a part of that band and then all of a sudden you are not part of that band. You are still the band without the other two members.
I don't think art is a goal orientated business. I don't do things for the challenges, I only do them because I love them, I'm not really a goal orientated, achiever type of person.
Philosophically, what I have learned is to thy own self be true. That is the biggest lesson of all. Relax; music is fun. To many people take it to seriously because of the money involved.
I love touring in the United States. It's dramatically different wherever you go. North to south you're going from snow to palm trees.
I couldn't say there is a formula to songwriting. Each time is a unique experience.
