In the realm of fakery, I would choose 'Rock Band' over 'American Idol' or over any of the other flimsy truths masquerading as music.
I'm tired of being around men all the time. I'm going to start a band called Skirt with three girls and I'll play the guitar and sing backing vocals in drag. I went window shopping when I was in New York, saw a lot of amazing dresses.
All your travelling is together, you eat together, you're on stage as a band together, when you get to the sound-check the band and the crew are all together.
I met the Santana band when I was 14. By the time I was 15, I was a member of the band.
For my rock band, I was influenced by things like 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.' For me, it's live rock n' roll theater.
You know, in the 1970's, when I was in high school, I belonged to a band called the Happy Funk Band. Until an unfortunate typo caused us to be expelled from school.
Phil has always been a fighter. He was getting in fights all the time. I told him that if he ever hit me then I would leave the band. He wanted to find out if I was telling him the truth. He hit me so I left and that is how UFO split up.
A lot of times, people just want to be more extreme than the next band or the next person, and that's all they focus on. That's kind of lost on me.
The band couldn't have happened anywhere else in the world but New York. That was the catalyst.
The New York Dolls are the only band that we grew up on that we haven't played with.
The Black Keys is just a band that wants to get on stage and rock it.
The reason I don't tour is that I don't know how to front a band. What would I do? I can't really play anything well enough to deal with that situation.
I mean, I think I liked every band I ever played in because each band was different, each band had a different concept, and each band leader was different... different personalities and musical tastes.
You know why Foo Fighters have been a band for 20 years? Because I've never really told anybody what I think of them. The last thing you ever want to do is go to therapy with your band.
But we're very much an American band and that's that. I think that's part of the appeal outside of this country and it might be part of the reason people turned away from us within this country, because familiarity breeds contempt.
We're trying to have the band create something beautiful that hopefully one day, 20 years from now, can be picked up by a kid and hopefully have the same effect that Neil Young had on me, or Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath.
After moving to England I did some recording and eventually formed an English band, this was together for quite a few years with only a keyboard replacement. The band had no name, just my name.
There were some situations where I was giving up everything I had for the band and I just expected everybody else to feel the same way. I realized I was just kidding myself.
Obviously everybody knows that I'm an original songwriter and I got my band. And the guys in 'Sugar Money,' no matter what, are part of my family and they always got something to do with me, and I don't care if they just hang out with me.
The difference between Tinted Windows and Hanson shows is a lot of just repertoire. Hanson has been a band for years - we have a lot of songs to pull from and it's a different dynamic - a common kind of thread. With Tinted Windows - it's kind of a little like 'hey, we're this new band.'
Depth on different levels is so important to me. You look at a band like The Beatles, all their material has so much depth to it. And I want people to be able to run away with my melodies and get lost in them and take the lyrics and be able to relate to them.
I have to hear more live instrumentation, more band and more funk, and I don't hear enough of it, so I created it myself.
We became friends as we became a band. Our friendship evolved as the band evolved. It had its ups and downs, but it was mostly ups for the four of us. We got along well almost all of the time. Hey! We liked each other and we still do.
The band was rejuvenated by that wonderful day. It breathed new life into us.
I'm a lead singer of a band, and that's so enough. It's not like I need to have my name on everything. The new name 'Scandal, Featuring Patty Smyth' was just to make it clear that I wasn't leaving the group.
My brother and I moved out to Hollywood initially to be a band, and where we lived, there was crime all over with my brother and I being the victims sometimes.
When you're in a young band for the first time, geographically you're in the same place and you tend to go out and socialize. You play more shows, you spend more time together. You're a unit. As you grow older, inevitably you develop a life outside the band. I think it would be tragic if you didn't.
I had a band called the Sound Of Love, and that was R&B songs about girls in my high school. I played in some other indie bands who were trying to make it big; those sucked. Then I started Makeout Videotape, and that was that.
We legitimately walked into 'Anthem' head-on, not paying enough attention to internal band tension.
XTC is my favorite band; I'm a huge Neil Young fan, Jayhawks, all that type of stuff. I like Death Cab for Cutie, also Ryan Adams. I try to impress my children: 'Have you listened to such-and-such?' They're not impressed.
Lyrically, you know, most of the things on 'Rumours' were very autobiographical and very much conversations the three writers were having with other members of the band.
When I left my band, I had to start over from scratch, and that's a scary place to go.
In New Order, I played about 95% of the synths. It's not much fun for the other guys in the band when I'm playing my synth parts.
When you have four guys in a room writing songs, it different. It's great - that's what makes a band a band. Audioslave was great.
When it comes to grunge or even just Seattle, I think there was one band that made the definitive music of the time. It wasn't us or Nirvana, but Mudhoney. Nirvana delivered it to the world, but Mudhoney were the band of that time and sound.
You shouldn't end a band like Westlife and not be financially secure to some extent, but I wasn't at all - it was the complete opposite. But you look at stuff then, 'Well, what do I have? I don't have money but I have a great marriage, three healthy kids, and I have my voice. I'll just start again.'
