You shouldn't even be writing this story if you haven't heard me play live. You can't write with the passion you receive until you see a Dick Dale concert.

I became stereotyped.

I don't play pyrotechnic scales. I play about frustration, patience, anger. Music is an extension of my soul.

I'm constantly being influenced by the soul that's directly in front of me.

I can play every instrument there is, every horn, I've played all the saxes and trumpets and everything and keyboards.

My aunt played the piano and I used to sit and listen to it.

I always wanted a guitar. I always wanted to be a cowboy singer because I also listened to Hank Williams, and he would always sing these neat romantic songs.

My son now is 22 months old, he's been playing since he was 12 months old and he gets standing ovations on the drums. He's been with us since he was 10 weeks old, he's been on the drums. He's got blisters on his fingers before he can even talk.

People just loved the sound because I kept it simple.

I always felt people should live with animals.

Every time I went into the studio some engineer tried to impress me with how they're going to capture my sound with all kinds of tricks. But they limited the sound and never allowed me to play how I felt.

When I start playing I'm just a rollercoaster of sound. I don't know what's coming next, I never do, and I sit and sign and talk to the people afterwards.

I told them if were going to do it were going to do it right, I'm not leaving 'til it's done. My wife, child and I slept in the studio. We cut these raw.

I wanted to put a sheet in explaining what all the songs are about, but they didn't do it.

I'm a perfectionist. I'm not going to cheat the people.

Jimi was a good guy 'til he got into drugs. That's the way it is. I just tell it like it is.

My music is more native than intricate or technical.

When I was 18 at the Santa Ana River Jetty is where I put my first board in the water that I ever got from Joe Quigg. I was just riding the whitewater in, and I was just in heaven.

I make my guitar scream with pain or pleasure or sensuality. It makes people move their feet and shake their bodies. That's what music does.

The Stratocaster is like the Rolls-Royce. It can never be surpassed.

I know what it's like to wash my clothes in a Chevron station.

I've never followed a list in my life, and that's probably what has created so much nervous energy in my body.

Drums were my first instrument.

I blew amps like they were made of tissue paper. Once I blew out the sound system at Royal Albert Hall in London.

You know what the doctors call me? 'The Cancer Warrior.'

Dick Dale don't surf no more.

Nothing could capture the sound of Dick Dale - he was too loud.

Every time I do an album, I say, 'That's the last one.'

People ask about love. Real love. I was never in love; the people around me didn't love me. They were just along for the ride.

I've been performing since 1955. I'm going to have to keep performing till I die because I'm not going to die in some rocking chair with a big ol' beer belly.

I make jokes because humor is the greatest healing factor that there is.

I smashed my tailbone and couldn't sit for five years, and I broke my clavicle because I thought I was a great surfer, and of course, I could be a great snowboarder, too. Man, was I wiped out!

I don't like to use the word 'fans;' I call them 'Dick Dale music lovers.'

With every problem comes a gift in hand.

I'm not one of these guys who is dedicated to playing or performing - that's just one facet of my life.

I answer number one to myself, because I know myself. I answer to my fans, because they know me. My mother knows me and God knows me, and that's where it's at.

When I come onstage, I'm exploding.

I've been called 'the father of loud.'

I may play the same songs night to night, but I never play them the same way.

I like to say, 'I hit every type of music in a show, and I play the people, not the instruments.'

Whatever you do, don't take shortcuts. It's great advice to take and live by.

If I ever wrote a book, people would never believe it.

My father never put me on his lap and said he loved me.

I've never taken a lesson in my life, and I can play every instrument there is. I play by ear, but I can fool anybody into thinking I went to some conservatory of music.

I do not play to musicians. I play to the people.

What I play now isn't surf music. It's too powerful. I used to go through paper bags; now I go through brick walls. I play hard.

When my guitar was growling, playing surf beat, you could hear it; you could feel it.

My philosophy is that on a scale of 1 to 10, I will go to 15. No matter what!

As I'd go out learning to surf, I'd feel the power of waves coming over my body. It's like you're with God.

Springsteen - he's the Lord God.