QUOTES by Rick Nielsen
Find most favourite and famour Authors from A.A Milne to Zoe Kravitz.
I just wanted to write about stuff that was happening in real life, and that's not just love songs about your girlfriend.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
If you don't have a great chorus, write a good bridge first. I often do that and find I write good bridges.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
I love guitars, and guitars love me, but sometimes they need new homes where they can live to rock another day.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
I took one guitar lesson, and they wanted me to play 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' or 'Michael Row the Boat Ashore,' and that was the last guitar lesson that I ever took, so I taught myself what I wanted to know.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
Hendrix was a different kind of guitar player. It was like, 'Holy cow, this guy can sing, he can play all this weird stuff... what is this?' It was a new kind of music.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
Some people design buildings and aircraft carriers and cars - and I designed picks.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
In 1977, I had Paul Rivera hotrod six Fender Deluxes for me. At that time, a lot of studio guys in L.A. were using those - not so much live guys but studio guys. They had terrific tone and great technique, and I was like, 'Well, I like having terrific tone even though I don't have any technique.'
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
People used to trade their guitars to get new ones; I never traded anything.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
If you can say something special on the guitar, then you're going to perk my ears up. But if you're just gonna run through all the scales, then I can always find something else to listen to.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
When a guitarist can evoke a certain mood through his playing, that's what's most important to me.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
I always hated watching bands: the guy would break a string or be out of tune, and I have perfect pitch, so it would always tick me off when a guy is up there, and he'd break a string.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
I've seen bands come out and begin their concerts with these long, slow, boring songs. Are they kidding, or what?
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
We do try to be entertainers, but we're musicians first, and we try to showcase the music.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
Some bands, they're too snooty, or they think they're too this or that and wouldn't talk to us. And some other bands are afraid to talk to us.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
When we toured with AC/DC, we always had to bring our A game. They really felt like our equals.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
Basically, I try to let the song dictate what guitar I use. If it's a really loud, crazy song, I'll pull out the cheapest, oldest guitar I own, one that feeds back easily. But most of the time, I just use whatever's around.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
I was three years old, and I walked onstage during a performance that my father was a tenor in 'The Barber of Seville.' I walked out onstage, and people started laughing and clapping, and that was it. That was all it took. Laughing and clapping, I still enjoy today.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
Every other year, I spend Thanksgiving in England with Dave Clark from the Dave Clark Five and a bunch of other people.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
Duane Eddy is somebody I wanted to play like. I discovered him before The Beatles, and he totally got to me. He sent me a note back in 1977 and said that he really liked what Cheap Trick were doing. That's one of those 'Wow!' moments, you know?
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
I never went to any high school dances or proms unless I was playing in them.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
The song 'Hello There' was written because we never got a soundcheck. 'Hello There' was our soundcheck.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
We played New Year's Eve in Los Angeles, maybe 1978, opening for Kansas or somebody. Driving to the hotel after the gig, we came on KLOS. It was like, 'All right! We're in L.A., we just played a big gig, and we're on the radio!' That was the start of something big.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
You've got to work hard and have luck. Luck only enters in if you do work hard.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
We all record together. We do it live; then, after that, we do overdubs, if we need to, to repair stuff. Usually when we do stuff, we have to make sure we get the bass and drums down, and by doing it live, you're actually playing the song. You're not piecing together a song.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
Look at Bob Dylan: his voice is not a great sound, but it gets the idea across... and that is what's really important.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
We're basically a rock band - guitar, bass, drums and vocals. But we take it further than that. We can be rotten, dirty, and heavy as anyone, but at the same time, we've got a lot of melody.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
There's no rush to ever put out a new Cheap Trick record. We put it out when we feel like it.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
I never tried to emulate The Beatles, and I never really wanted to be like The Rolling Stones. I never really felt that I had the look or the demeanor of veteran musicians.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen
We've got the pretty-boy lead singer and the fat, dumpy drummer, and I'm the zany guitarist. Sure, we've played up the image at times. But it's the music that matters most.
Quote by -Rick Nielsen