Quotes from Rick Nielsen

I always thought of myself as more of a rhythm player than a big soloist.

People say, 'Oh, Rick, he's crazy.' Well, I'm crazy, and I'm not crazy... When I went to my high school reunion, I was the only one there doing what he said he was going to do. How crazy is that?

We played with Rush somewhere way early in our career.

I like 'Salty Dog' by Procol Harum.

I never wanted to be Keith Richards or Jimmy Page.

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.

We do try to be entertainers, but we're musicians first, and we try to showcase the music.

I always use my Les Paul. I have a Hamer as well. I use a Tele and an Esquire - once in a while, I will use a Strat, and I never use any pedals... except for in my car.

If we waited for a hit record to tour, we would never have toured.

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.

Look at Bob Dylan: his voice is not a great sound, but it gets the idea across... and that is what's really important.

Some people design buildings and aircraft carriers and cars - and I designed picks.

I have four warehouses full of stuff. I have every boarding pass of every flight I've ever been on. I have all the old contracts that we had from all the clubs and concerts we played, every one of them, up from 1980. Guitar picks and amps - it goes on and on.

We always record with the whole band. That's key to capturing the feel, especially trying to get a good basic track.

When I write songs, it's just me and a cassette player - or at least it used to be before smartphones - to quickly record a basic idea.

I'm a good solid family man. I don't say I'm a good solid man.

The Sex Pistols had it all - they had the snarl, they had the I-don't-give-a-crap attitude - plus, they could play.

I was never going to be very cute. I always looked for the best people to play with and, 'cause, to make myself look better.

Playing it safe isn't fun; you have to take a chance.

I never went to any high school dances or proms unless I was playing in them.

Every other year, I spend Thanksgiving in England with Dave Clark from the Dave Clark Five and a bunch of other people.

Whenever we tell the truth, nobody believes us. We lie, and people take it as etched-in-stone fact.

I'd rather be musical than technical.

The Ramones were American, and I knew about them, and I thought they were interesting. But they were like a pop band to me.