Quotes from Allan Holdsworth

I grew up listening to Ravel, Debussy, Bartok and jazz like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Cannonball Adderley, Charlie Christian and Django Reinhart. It was incredibly inspiring! And I was given a guitar and I said 'What the hell is this?!'

I'm pretty selfish, I think. I'm probably a terrible dad. I don't do too much with my kids. Obviously I love them and everything, but I just stay here in the studio all day.

If the whole idea, in the original bebop days, was to get to soloing, then that's all it should be about.

My dad was a fine pianist and he had a lot of great records and beautiful music.

I was working with another major label after Warner Bros, and they were telling me who to hire as musicians, what kind of music to play, what producer to use. I mean, what's the point of putting me on the record?

I had always wanted to compose music for movies, but had never been given the opportunity.

Whenever I watch a movie I like to imagine what sort of music I might compose for a scene, to create a particular kind of atmosphere, because when I see something I hear something.

To me, I don't see any difference between a synthesizer and an acoustic instrument. It's what's done on it that counts.

To most people, jazz-fusion means this dreadful synthetic jazz-rock thing, this jazz-Muzak, which I detest. They also think of jazz as a specific form of music, while to me it's just the opposite.

In a way, I think the whole business is pretty corrupt. It's like anything else where people make a lot of money - it's really hard for the little guy.

I'm a very tough critic of my guitar-playing. Sometimes I don't even want to do it anymore.

It's not my personality to brag in any way or be pretentious. It's just not my nature.

We used to work with a promoter in Italy who used to book for shows with nine hour drives in between, so we got a new promoter.

As soon as I figured out I didn't know anything about music, I was OK. It's when I thought I could learn something that I was in trouble.

I don't mind categories, but it's so hard to find one that fits.

When I hear 'fusion,' I think of Tricky-Dick stuff - really hairy melodies played in unison. It's like, 'Why?'

Standing and playing next to Tony Williams was pretty amazing. One of the things I learned about being a band leader from Tony was that he would never, ever tell me what to play or do.

The SynthAxe enables you to achieve a whole world of sonic textures that you cannot get with a guitar. There was nothing like it before and nothing like it since.

I'd get another job before I would play music I don't enjoy. But then, I'm really not qualified to do anything else.

The electric guitar's a pretty cheesy thing when you think about it, still working on those bits of wire and magnets for its sound. It's all of the things that are wrong with it that have made it the unique instrument it is.

I wanted to be a music fan who just listens to music. I never wanted to be musician. I didn't gravitate toward playing.

Record companies tell me to play something more commercial, but I don't want to do anything else.

There are good people in radio and the record companies, but there are others who are completely in the wrong job and holding music up in the process.

I don't get a big recording budget or much promotion, but I have creative freedom.