If you call attention to yourself at the expense of the song, that's the cardinal sin.

You can go crazy and play solos in the right place, and that's great because it can intensify and bring an emotional lift. But the thing is you don't want to get in the way of the song.

Sometimes you work with somebody you've never heard of because you just feel like working.

I think I drift toward sad love songs.

I got to play on a couple of records with the Rolling Stones, and that was really special to me.

Jeff Lynne is an arranger, and I think it's probably much easier for him to go ahead and play a part himself than to try to show somebody else what he wants. But it's hard for me to say; I barely know Jeff.

Fortunately, as we all know, it's impossible for anybody but Jimmy Smith to really sound like Jimmy Smith.