I know it sounds corny, but I think the meaning of life is to do what you love and be happy.

I'm so honored that I got the best guitarist award for the fifth annual Revolver Golden Gods awards.

I know it is one of the most important instruments and inventions, the electric guitar, to me, since television or movies or anything like that.

I wanted to be a guitar player and musician so badly, and I prayed to get this the very few times I went to church, and I feel like I got my prayer answered.

It's funny, the power of music. I was watching 'Dracula,' the 1931 version with Bela Lugosi, and the only music you hear is at the very beginning of the credits. There's not one other piece of music; it's all silent. It's unbelievable, and it's very effective, too.

I love Loretta Lynn, and I love Roy Clark and Johnny Cash, everybody.

I like streaming music. I'll be in the car going, 'I want to hear Scotty Anderson.' He's a great guitar player not many people know about - maybe me and two other dudes know him. But I love him, and I can pull him up on Apple Music, and there it is, right there in my car.

You know how kids will wait outside after a gig and try to get an autograph from the band? I would do that, but when I found the guitar player, I would say, 'What advice can you give me?' And a lot of my heroes would say, 'Have your own style.' I always kept that in my head.

Jimi Hendrix is one of the main influences on why I wanted to play guitar. He really shook me. I think it was his whole style - the look and what he did with the guitar.

I always play so many different styles that I don't think anything I do surprises anyone.

I started at such a young age learning every style of music, the country and the bluegrass and the western swing and the rock - everything.

I love doing it. It's great. I love doing the sessions, 'cause you're kind of like in a different band every day. I used to do them all the time. I think my first one was John Wetton from U.K. and Asia and all that stuff, King Crimson. It was so great. Really a lot of fun.

I would hear Steely Dan on the radio all the time, and I listened to 'Aja' a lot. I mean, 'Black Cow' and 'Aja' and 'Deacon Blues' and 'Josie' and 'Peg'... all these songs are on one record. It's crazy!

I love watching documentaries on people like 'clean freaks,' because it's just so interesting to me for some reason.

When I came to California, I came from such an upper scale neighborhood, I was so sheltered, but I always knew I wanted to live in California, and I wanted to play guitar.

I love instrumental guitar records, but I also understand that, as a listener, it can be difficult to get through a whole album of just that one thing.

Being the founding member of Loser, my decision to leave was not an easy one.

I'll watch the Grammys and think, 'You hardly even see people playing guitar,' and it freaks me out.

I've been putting out records for so long, but I didn't want to tour because I didn't think anybody really cared.

I love meeting the fans, and I love shaking hands, and that's what it's all about. It really is.

When I was touring with Ozzy, you know, when I was with Manson, we toured with Ozzy, so many times, we did Ozzfest a thousand times, and, you know, it seems like I'm always playing with Ozzy in one way or another opening up.

I love to learn, and I started doing a lot of studying of Spanish-style music and really started getting into it and how it is just a completely different form of guitar playing. It is just like if you started speaking in a different language like Japanese or something. It is something that you have to study and work at a lot.

When I was younger, I had a horrible flight. Horrible. It was well before I was 10 years old. So I always thought to myself, 'I know I don't want to travel.' That's why I wanted to be a session guy, because I knew I could still play guitar and make a living at it - hopefully.

I truly enjoyed my time with Manson and have the greatest respect for the incredible fans. I am grateful to have contributed over two dozen songs to his projects. It was a great creative outlet for me at that point in my career.

I love doing instrumental records; I love doing that.

I never wished to be a 'rock star.' I just wanted to be a working musician. My dreams didn't even go past a session player or a working musician. It was too far beyond my dreams.

I love Jimmy Bryant, and I love Albert Lee. Roy Clark. Chet Atkins. I love those pickers.

Nothing's changed from when I'm seven years old to now. Nothing's changed at all. I like the same stuff that I did - Kiss, Van Halen, 'Happy Days,' 'Laverne & Shirley,' 'The Brady Bunch,' monsters and all that stuff.

If you go out to dinner with a group of people, pay for the dinner at a nice restaurant, for the amount of money for that dinner, you can get a John 5 Squier Telecaster and have it for the rest of your life.

I, like, prayed inside of my head as a little kid. I didn't grow up in a religious home, but we went to Midnight Mass. That was the only time I'd go to church, but when I did, I prayed that I wanted to be a successful musician. I got my wish.

If my mom said, 'You better not do this!' I'm not one of those people who go, 'Well, I'm definitely going to do that.' I always thought, 'Okay, mom. I probably don't want to do that. She's probably looking out for me.' If it's someone who says, 'You'll never make it,' I'll just do what's in my heart. It's what I've always done.

I remember where I was when I heard Yngwie Malmsteen for the first time. It was such an epiphany for me, and it really shaped the way I play today. I think I heard him in '83, if I'm not mistaken - I was 13 years old - and it really was amazing for me.

I remember this vividly: It was 1977, and I was in Sears with my mom. And I saw this display, and it was for 'Love Gun.' I bought the record just because of the look of that display. Because I really loved monsters.

Whenever you listen to a CD or an album, it gets tiresome hearing the same thing over and over and over again.

I find the macabre fascinating; it's all over history.

When I saw Kiss, and it was monsters with guitars, I thought this was the greatest thing that ever happened.

I loved TV, and I watched anything with music - 'Hee Haw,' 'Happy Days,' anything like that. So I loved the Monkees.

Ever since I was a kid, I've been a Fender connoisseur. And to have my name associated with greatness like that, it's amazing. I couldn't be more proud of anything. My children, and then being associated with Fender. In that order!

I liked what any other kid did back in the day. You know, Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, and everything else that was on the radio in Michigan. There was a lot of Steely Dan; just a lot of great music inspired me.

I really truly love all styles of music. A lot of people say that, but the first station they turn to when they get in the car is a rock station. I don't always do that. I really enjoy everything. But, of course, I'm a rock shred guitar player first.

I would love to work with a Beatle: Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr.

You gotta go after your dreams and do it. Go and do it.

I was such a big Kiss and Van Halen fan, Yngwie Malmsteen, Racer X... all that stuff. I loved everybody.

Steve Vai had a unique style of playing. Steve Vai didn't sound like anyone else: Steve Vai sounded like Steve Vai.

Inspiration is a really hard thing to describe, but it's something that triggers your brain, like the first time I heard a certain guitar player that I loved or the first time that I saw a monster or the first time that I saw anything that really was an epiphany for me. It just stays with you your whole life.

I like people writing great songs on guitar or piano or what have you. I miss people getting on stage with real bands and real instruments and expressing themselves that way instead of with computers and technology.

All my life, I've really enjoyed music: making music, playing it, and recording it. It's such a relief and a joy to do what I do for a living.

I have tons of Telecasters but also about 50 Les Pauls, six or seven SGs, and a bunch of Gretsches.

I'm a vegan now, and I've never felt better in my life. In my life.

Whatever I say is so honest when I'm doing interviews.