In other words, an instrument should be an extension of you; it's supposed to sound like you - the way you walk, the way you dress, you know.

If you have to ask, you'll never know.

Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.

The music has gotten thick. Guys give me tunes and they're full of chords. I can't play them...I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords, and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variation. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them.

I keep telling Ron Lorman and them in the control room, "It's my band! The reason I have a band is because I can't stand for somebody to tell me what to do."

Tom Jones is funny to me, man. I mean, he really tries to ape Ray Charles and Sammy Davis, you know. He's nice-looking; he looks good doing it. I mean, if I was him, I'd do the same thing. If I was only thinking about making money.

If you're not nervous then you're not paying attention.