Quotes from Dick Dale

Little Richard, he'd say, 'Oh Dick Dale! You have luscious lips!'

My philosophy is that on a scale of 1 to 10, I will go to 15. No matter what!

Whatever you do, don't take shortcuts. It's great advice to take and live by.

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.

I'm a perfectionist. I'm not going to cheat the people.

I'm not one of these guys who is dedicated to playing or performing - that's just one facet of my life.

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.

For 20 years I've been screaming at these guitar companies, saying, 'It's abnormal to put your arm around an acoustic guitar that is about 6 to 8 inches deep.' Your arm reaches over, and you start to strum, and then all of a sudden you get a charley horse in your back. The older you get, the greater the charley horse.

Gene Krupa was my big hero, and I used to play on my mother's flour cans and sugar cans with the kitchen knives, listening to the big bands on my dad's records. Gene Krupa and Harry James.

My aunt played the piano and I used to sit and listen to it.

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

What I play now isn't surf music. It's too powerful. I used to go through paper bags; now I go through brick walls. I play hard.

You know what the doctors call me? 'The Cancer Warrior.'

I know what it's like to wash my clothes in a Chevron station.

Nothing could capture the sound of Dick Dale - he was too loud.

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

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

I used to surf up in Ventura County at Silver Strand; plus, I've played up there many times.

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

Dick Dale don't surf no more.

When my guitar was growling, playing surf beat, you could hear it; you could feel it.

Music is an attitude. It's a sensation to the average person, to the human being. And keep it simple, stupid. That's always been my theory.

My philosophy is the thicker the wood the thicker the sound, the bigger the string the bigger the sound. My smallest string is a 14 gauge.

Jimi was a good guy 'til he got into drugs. That's the way it is. I just tell it like it is.