As a little kid I had a girlfriend, and her boyfriend used to beat me up, so then I used to sing these songs, and that's what it's all about. Country music is all about your heart and your people and things like that.

I have all the rhythm in my left hand, and I use the rhythms that Gene Krupa did on his drums.

I almost had to have my leg amputated because of an infection.

When I play, I don't cheat. I played for 490,000 in Berlin, and I'll play just as hard for 100.

I used to be a mean maniac. Someone once threw a firecracker at a show and I jumped off the side of the stage and whacked 'em on the side of the head.

I've got holes in my guitar.

I learned everything by ear and played all the different instruments. So then I was able to find a guitar. That was, like, in the seventh grade. And then I didn't know how to put my fingers on all the different strings, so I had to figure out how to do it upside down and backwards, and I still play that way today.

What we perceive things to be when they come out of our mouth is not what the listener perceives it to be. They think it differently. They're not your blood. They're not your mind. You get in an argument.

Surfers were the ones who named all my songs. They'd yell out the names, and we just kept 'em.

I enjoy living like a hermit, but I cannot live like a hermit.

I try to read the audience, see what they're in the mood for.

Some guys record an album with songs that are filler. I recorded this album like it was my last.

I surfed Dana Point, San Clemente, and of course Huntington Beach. Every morning, you could find me at the hot water pipe.

Earthlings are confused, insecure. And some Earthlings have no heritage: that's what leads them to kill each other and rob 7-11 stores.

I'm going to make people happy. I'm going to make them forget about their cancer. I'm going to make them forget about their diabetes.

That's what my music does for me. It makes people happy. When I play, I thank the Lord I've never seen someone walk away from a Dick Dale dance not having a good time. That's what it's all about.

The ultimate guitar players can play every scale in the book.

The kids called me King of the Surf Guitar. I surfed sunup to sundown.

Surf music is played through a Showman amp with a Stratocaster guitar.

I grew a love for helpless, defenseless things. People would give me lions and jaguars. I had cheetahs, monkeys.

I called it Rockabilly 'cause I was rocking the strums, which you're not supposed to do.

I actually first picked up an ukulele before I picked up a guitar.

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.'