Nobody told Don Henley or me that we were going to make it as solo artists, but I can speak for Don when I say that we are both really happy now that the band is not together.
The first Maiden record I ever got was 'Piece of Mind,' and I only got it because I thought the artwork was cool, and everyone talked about Iron Maiden. But they weren't necessarily the most popular metal band in America for a 12-year-old kid when I discovered them.
Band members have a special bond. A great band is more than just some people working together. It's like a highly specialized army unit, or a winning sports team. A unique combination of elements that becomes stronger together than apart.
I look upon meself as... You take a band that's made up of arms, legs, bodies... I happen to be the piece that talks. And does all that area of it, you know? I'm also very easy to recognize; the darkie in the middle jumping around with the guitar, you know. Dat boy's got rhydm!!!
I'm a keen musician. Me and my mates have a great times jamming and recording stuff. We have a great band behind us and have turned my nursery-rhyme songs into quite credible pieces of music.
We had so many friends who did the band thing, and one of their first moves was to go on tour, and they'd just blow all their money.
The first couple shows I did by myself, I was looking around wondering where the rest of my band was.
I got my first set of drums when I was around 3. I went from band to marching band to Latin jazz band - it's like riding a bike.
When the band first started, it was so much about carving out some space for myself and our audience and our songs.
Well, I think we're the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world.
And I played in jazz band as well during all three years in school.
To a young person who can't come out to our show, make your own band. Make your own music project.
When I was a kid, I was into hardcore music. The scene in New York was tiny. Every person hanging out was in a band and played at the A7 Club. There was not much rehearsing or anything. Just doing.
I was just a kid in 1987 when I heard of the Pixies, the year after I graduated high school. But I had my band together, and my best friend at the time, Corey Hickock, who was the guitar player in the band that would become STP, Mighty Joe Young, turned me on to the Pixies.
The first band I was ever in, I played guitar. We did Gary Glitter and Green Day covers at the time. We were called Fizz. I have no idea why we picked that. We were, like, 12 years old.
Everybody in Lynyrd Skynyrd loves different styles of music, and our minds are very open when it comes to writing our songs and making the band true to what the band is, but also stepping out and doing something current.
Being a professional musician doesn't mean you spend 12 hours a day playing music. It means you spend up to 12 hours a day taking care of business, dealing with litigation, with the various characters who've stolen your interests, or fending off hostile lawsuits from former members of the band.
There is a difference between a great producer and somebody who is a big advocate of your music. Just because you're a big advocate for a band doesn't mean you need to be in the studio with them, and at the same time - we don't need to get into this conversation - you can write a hit, but it might not hit.
Cheap Trick has played with every band on the planet.
I know there are, like, 12 rules for late night: a desk, a band. Will people take me seriously if I don't wear a tie?
Really, to me, a really good evening would be a comedian, followed by a band, followed by a really good DJ.
I think I write very good songs. But I don't know if anybody could record my songs with as much fervor. They sound good sung by me, and they especially sound good with my band.
I wanted to have no ribs. I wore what was called a waist-nipper in those days. My mother made it. It's a piece of rubber band I wore around to hold my rib cage in. I don't know why I always loved that. I guess I was a glutton for punishment. I think I was born one of those people who loved swords and fought in armor.
I was a fairly good amateur musician, and I was an average professional. But the one thing I saw was that the big band business was fading.
The funny thing is that when you have any form of presentation to your band, meaning you have the foresight to see outside of your creativity, you have a bigger vision.
Keeping a consistent band going is a bit like getting the Aston Martin out the garage - you have to run it every now and then!
I was in a band till I was about 17; then I went to television, and I spent seven years doing that. When I came to Seattle, I started to audition for things. The passion's always there, and that's what's been the hard thing: to fit that passion into a normal life. You can't do it. You can't have a normal life and pursue this dream.
I've been through a lot of experiences in my life being in the biggest band in the world.
When I started Samhain, I remember a producer telling me that I had a real band now.
Too pop for punk, too 'old school' for the New Wave, Mumps were a '70s era New York rock band, out of time.
I saw Berry in concert a couple of times in the late '70s - and like almost every North American male of a certain age, I went because a friend was hired by Berry that very day to be part of the legend's backup band.
I've been in a New York City-based cabaret for the past seven years called The Citizens Band. It's possibly one of the most brilliant things I've ever been involved with.
The band will be going along, and somebody or another will say, 'I want to go off and do a solo career.'... They come back, and other people come in.
But the irony is that because the band isn't the focus any more, it allows me the chance to enjoy being a member of Def Leppard much more.
If I'm performing with a DJ, it's all on me to draw the energy. I like the camaraderie of a band.
I actually went to an Oasis concert. I thought they were a brilliant songwriting band.
