It's always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don't know where it comes from, it's just there and I don't question it.

The reason [drummers] call things "unison", and they sound unison, is because you actually play two different tempos . . . like you're a little sharp, or a little flat; it's so slight that they call it "unison", but it's not unison.

Some day I'm gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up.

The way you change and help music is by tryin' to invent new ways to play

It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play.

Maybe you play a melody twice. You play it once like you like it, and some parts that you don't like you can just switch. An eight-bar motive - you can just take it and put it in the front or back or something like that. It can save you 50 or 60 or 70,000 dollars, a drum machine. That's why everybody uses it.

We're not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got 'em, so they can keep 'em.