Quotes from Rory Gallagher

All I really want to do is play, that's all that matters. I don't think I've ever tried to cultivate an image. Everything has been on instinct. The flannel shirt and jeans, for example... those are the clothes I wear. If I wore anything else on stage, I wouldn't feel comfortable.

My favorite lineup is just a trio, because then every night you can improvise and change the repertoire. Keyboards and brass can be great, but it puts you in a different ballgame because you're not quite as free. You have to stick to the arrangement of the song.

A lot of the time I use slide tuning for rhythm parts. I play a lot of slide in regular tuning as well as open tunings. I'm still mad about slide, there are so many ways of progressing on it.

I'm a great listener - I play records all the time at home. And I play guitar as a hobby. So inspiration has never been a big problem for me, but motivation can be a bit difficult sometimes.

I won't squander my credibility, whatever that is, just for one silly song.

If anything, even though I can play in the sort of standard string-bending style, in the B.B. King mold and all of that, I've always had a great interest in the more primitive playing, the open chord playing, rhythm and figures.

I think that I set such high standards for myself that sometimes I expect other people to live up to these standards, and it's not fair because they're not setting the same goals for themselves.

I liked Slash. He's a nice guy and can really play.

I enjoy some nights in the studio. I'm not the greatest person in an enclosed space; I'm a live player by birth - like a gypsy folk player, I just sit in the corner and play.

It's dangerous not to tour, because people assume you've faded away, or have no interest.

Obviously, I would like to play to bigger audiences and have a bit more success, but not if I have to commercialize.

I like a nice rumble on bass, openness on guitar and drums that breathe.

You can play slide on any guitar, but to be serious about it you have a tough set of strings, otherwise you don't get the full attack - you can't dig in.

Lonnie Donegan and the folk movement were responsible for a lot of the spread of the blues in England. The group Them with Van Morrison was a big influence on me, too, as were The Stones; The Yardbirds, John Mayall, and the other British blues pioneers.

After writing quite a few songs now, I have not a method but a way of being patient with a couple of verses or a certain set of chords. I can match them up quicker now than I used to. The one thing you do improve is songwriting.

I have my own stubborn attitude about how I want to play and where I want to go.

Ideally, I'd really like to put my own stamp on things, but it takes years, you know, and you're constantly learning and studying and falling in and out with your instrument, learning different approaches and different attacks.

I started on acoustic guitar after I heard Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy.

I see music as a lifetime affair.