Quotes from Steve Miller

I think the audiences abroad are older and come from a more mature society. They have a different understanding of whats happening as art.

I never set out to be a rock star, I set out to be a working musician.

My roots are in everything from doo-wop and blues to the Four Freshman and the Beach Boys and jazz and electronica. But it was put together in a deceptively simple package.

Rock 'n' roll guitar came from blues guitar. It was the blues guys who first turned the amp up and started whacking on the Stratocaster and a Les Paul. It wasn't the country guys and it wasn't the white guys; it was the Blues guys. That's where the real fire is in all of this rock and roll music.

Les Paul was my godfather.

My dad loved Les Paul, and I wanted to be just like that.

From a small child to right now - I mean, when I was five years old, Red Norville, Tal Farlow, Charles Mingus, Les Paul, Mary Ford, people like that were coming over to my house. So I was around professional adult mature musicians who had had big careers.

I've demanded respect for myself and my band and my peers, I've demanded full artistic control for my music, I advocate for artists and music education wherever I can. And I'm a nice guy.

Very rarely can you bring someone new into a band and have them just fit perfectly, right away.

Growing up in Dallas, my first influences on the guitar were T-Bone Walker and Les Paul. T-Bone taught me how to play lead guitar behind my head and do the splits in 1951 when I was nine.

I played American football, but I did my best work with baseball.

Blues is one of the most important art forms. It's an amazing music, and we don't want to lose it.

All jazz comes from blues. Blues first.

Each time I hit the road to gig, it still feels like I'm going to summer camp.

The people at Jazz at Lincoln Center are an amazing group and have done a phenomenal job teaching kids and audiences of all ages about jazz.

My father had a phenomenal knowledge of music; my mom's family were all musicians.

The digital world is so convenient and nice, but just playing back a vinyl record is a much warmer, hotter, more present feeling.

Looking at Capitol's performance over a 22-year period, I figure they were focused three years out of the 22 I worked for them.

From the time I was 12 until I was 21, Chuck Berry was my favorite artist.

You better not brag, you're a hunky old hag, and that goes for your mother, too.

The question to everyone's answer is usually asked from within.

We are bullish on the health benefits, but they have to bring value.

I'm sort of standing on T-Bone Walker's shoulders, Les Paul's shoulders, Lightnin' Hopkins' shoulders, Muddy Waters' shoulders, you know? And if I've inspired other people, I'm pleased. That pleases me greatly.

Is there one blues guy who was the most sophisticated and influential, like Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong in jazz? Was it Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Robert Johnson, or all of them? I think you have to pick all of them.