A friend of mine took me to Memphis advised me that I should get in the musicians' union. He gave me a set of drums and said, Stay on the job, son.

Maybe the greatness we heard in [Richard Manuel]'s voice, that catch in it, came from all that pain. To this day, we don't really know.

The rock star stuff never came up for us. The Band was never attacked by groupies before, during or after any show that we ever played.

We're all dealt with the same hand here, so to speak. I feel like I've had it a lot better than most people. I've had the opportunity to travel and play music all my life.

If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.

I played some Yamaha drums that I like a lot. And I like the Yamaha people a lot too. They've been really nice to me and The Band.

I like to get within handshaking distance of the crowd. If it happens, they know it, we know it, and that's all we came here for.