Quotes About Authenticity

There are a lot of bands who claim to be punk and they only play the music, they have no clue what it's all about. It's a lifestyle. It's not about popularity and all that crap.

People called me the godmother of punk, but I never name myself anything.

When the 'godfather of punk' thing started floatin' around, it was, I was really, really embarrassed. I thought I should have a great, big rig and a cape and everything, and it was very embarrassing. And then after a while, you learn that if people call you anything, this is a great gift.

'Punk' doesn't mean Mohawks and safety pins. It's about not conforming.

I love '90s grunge and punk.

I'm 36, but I still feel like a punk kid with $200 in my savings account.

I didn't go to prom because I was too punk.

I want people to focus on listening, not the image. And I want to play to everyone: rednecks, dubstep kids, punk rockers, and people who like as-real-as-it-gets country music.

I'm finding out what part of punk culture or white indie culture I actually still want to hold onto - What are the values? What are the contributions that I actually like? - and it not coming from a place of desperation or wanting to be embraced or wanting approval, essentially.

Good Charlotte are a band with punk values - they look it, they grew up on the music, and they believe in the punk ethos.

Is punk dressing up in leather jackets? No. It's having a counter-cultural perspective.

Super-envious of the fact that Daft Punk can wear robot helmets and be one of the most famous bands in the world, while also understanding that will never be my situation.

I will always, no matter what, be a punk more than anything.

My aim was to dismantle this false history that men created punk, because they didn't. And they were certainly never the best at it.

You just have to know your story from the beginning. You have to know what you're going for and be honest with people about that. Don't sit there and say you're gonna be a DIY punk band for your whole life and then move on to arenas; you can't do that because then people don't trust you anymore.

The first music I loved on my own was punk.

I felt more and more like I was putting on an act - like I was being shoved into this role of 'angry white man in a punk band.'

I always felt like I had a punk album waiting to be made.

I turned to punk because I didn't fit in anywhere else.

I was always so many different things, all at once: a little hood, a little punk, a little grunge, a little glam, a little gay. I have a whole bunch of flavours.

I can't live in a world of dullards. So I think on that level, I'm definitely punk.

When we play live, we go back to our punk roots.

Like I said before in my earlier interviews when I was just starting, I'm not a CM Punk. Like, I'm not here to jump in, take whoopings, and cash checks.

Ain't nobody more punk rock than Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, even Little Richard.