Quotes from Buzz Osborne

I've always been a huge Butthole Surfers fan. The first time I saw them was in the early '80s when all they had out was their first EP. I thought they were amazing. They've always been a huge influence and one of my all-time favorite bands.

Not one person from the music world has ever come with - as if I could get a rock'n'roller up at four in the morning to play golf - but that's fine. I have way too much going on to sit around waiting for tee time at two in the afternoon.

I can't go into Oklahoma without thinking about Larry Clark's photography book 'Tulsa.' It's a great book about how life works.

I've always had the idea that multi-millionaire rock stars should work harder than anyone because they have the ability to do it. Look at an artist like Andy Warhol. He never stopped working, even after he didn't need to work again.

I want to travel around the country and make my living playing music. I also try to behave in a way that I would appreciate as a music fan. That's how we conduct ourselves, be it in writing music or playing it live.

Actors really are the scum of the earth. Their behavior makes overpaid rock stars look positively noble.

Stupidity knows no bounds and certainly no city limits, but by and large, 99 percent of the people who come to Melvins shows seem to be relatively well behaved... I'm happy and relieved by this.

I can't think of any punk who's put on an acoustic and hasn't just tried to sound like James Taylor.

I started playing guitar when I was in my late teens, and within two years I was starting to play shows.

I never wanted to be part of any scene, I never wanted to be a part of anything, I wanted to do my own thing. Those are the lessons I learned from punk rock.

I was a huge Bowie fan since I was 12 years old. That was the first 'punk' rock I got into in the Seventies. I didn't find out about a lot of the other stuff that was going on, like New York Dolls and Roxy Music, until a lot later.

If I'm listening to country, it's Hank Williams, George Jones, Merle Haggard and stuff like that. If people out there don't take that stuff seriously, well, they just haven't listened to it and don't know what they're talking about.

The band that changed my life was The Who. It's hard to pick just one album, but if I had to pick the one that really showed me how things could be done, it's 'The Who Sell Out.' They really went to town on that, doing something that no one had ever done before.

The Who is one of my favorite bands of all time. 'The Who Sell Out' is one of the greatest art-project albums of all time.

We don't need another Woody. Even Bob Dylan knew he couldn't be Woody Guthrie... I like Woody Guthrie fine, but I don't need the 50th generation version of it.

We went into that knowing that we were never going to sell a major record 'cause we didn't sound like these bands, so I just thought this was an opportunity for us to make the kind of records that we wanted and make some money at the same time.

I would love to sell millions of records, but that's never gonna be the case.

I've been a list maker for years, even before I was a musician. I was always writing things down and kept long lists of things that would make good album titles and things like that. I'm constantly thinking in terms of songwriting.

I've toured the U.S. every single year and I've put a record out every single year whether it was on a major label or not; that doesn't make any difference to me.

The best part of touring is playing the shows. I mean, that is the point of touring, at least for me. I have been blessed in that I've always gotten to play with other good musicians.

If two wrongs don't make a right, then what do three wrongs make? What about four?

I've liked country music for forever. And Buck Owens is just one of many country guitarists I like. I think Buck's Sixties records are really progressive.

To me, traveling by bus is like climbing into a closet and watching 'Das Boot.'

I never solicited a major label and I certainly wouldn't now.