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.

I've had all the lessons I could get. I've learned from everybody I've ever met.

If it doesn't come from your heart, music just doesn't work.

My parents wanted me to be smart and be a scholar, and the best I could do was graduate high school.

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.

Conway Twitty was always our local hero while I was growing up. He had a series of good bands. I wanted to sit in, if Conway would let me. And he did a couple of times.

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.