I try to remember our relative insignificance on this planet and that these seemingly important things do not mean quite as much as we think they do.
— Billy Squier
I find the idea of doing what you do over and over again to be incredibly boring.
But I don't let my bad feelings rule my life. I acknowledge them because I can't pretend they aren't there.
It would be easier to be more mysterious, but I try to be accessible.
My music has been called heavy metal, but that's not an accurate description. I'd rather call it articulate rock because it expresses many feelings and emotions.
I'm not a poet. So the writing process is a difficult one for me.
I don't know if anyone necessarily looks at themselves and what they do as being terribly significant one way or another.
Singing is the form I've chosen to express myself. It's the way I emote best.
For me, music is just one road. I dont have a specific pursuit; generally. I just try to be more aware of myself.
What I do is a bit broader in scope than a heavy metal band like Iron Maiden, Motorhead, ACDC and so on.
Music became so commercialized that I just didn't want anything to do with it. I renounced the industry before it became the fashionable thing to do.
Piper took me one step further in that it got my first real recording contract but the band just didn't quite mature. It didn't break things open, but it got me to the door.
I don't have to forsake my career as a musician. I know how to write songs - that's not going to leave me. But I think it's good to explore some other avenues.
People say, 'When are you making this comeback?' I say, 'It's not a comeback, it's a record.' They say, 'Where have you been all these years?' I say, 'I've been making records.'
At all points, you have to look at what you're doing and say, 'Do I want to do this?' 'Am I up to it?' 'Am I strong enough?'
I don't feel any great need to dress in funny-looking clothes and be recognized as a star, nor do I get that much satisfaction out of hanging around all the main clubs so people can see who I am.
I don't feel I have to be Jackson Browne. Still, I like to say something.
I tend to deal with things in a very serious manner.
Most of us, whether we like it or not, we grow up and start having a different view of what we've done and who we are and where we're going.
Don't Say No' was the first album I'd done that I felt completely comfortable with.
It's very important for me to try to get to the people. I'm not shy. It's nice to give the fans a little extra, to let them inside.
When I was a kid, I was interested in folk music. But rock represented power, and I became the best rock guitarist in my school.
I don't like pictures of me showing my hair sticking up in back.
It certainly is a positive thing… having a trademark.
I started as a guitarist and couldn't find a decent singer, so I started providing my own vocals.
Life isn't that complicated on paper. It's made more complex by the day and age we live.
When a band retires or is In hiding, a void is created. The fans' need is still there.
I read one article that called me the 'latest pretender to the Led Zeppelin throne.'… If I saw the guy I'd knock him out. Because that's not true - I'm not pretending anything. If my records sell, it's because of me.
You can't just say, 'God help me,' and he's there. It takes a little bit more work on the part of the individual, I think.
I don't sit around going, 'What is the matter with me? What do I have to do to get a hit?' And I don't also sit home and listen to my record every day and get drunk and go, 'Wow, this is great.'
I'm not gonna get it all right, but I take my victories, as small as they are.
When I write the songs, I don't dictate how people should interpret them.
I never try to create a different personality or anything like that. I'm not like David Bowie or somebody like that, who changes personas each year.
I don't make grandiose, prophetic statements in my songs.
Usually, when I'm having a good time, I don't think about it that much. I tend to become more reflective or introspective.
There are a lot of cases where I'm using, if not an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar more as a rhythm instrument. Rather than blasting away, I use it to create more of an acoustic feel.
Success hasn't changed me at all. I'm still the same cocky, arrogant guy I've always been. The only difference now is that I'm busy all the time.
Studio work is very methodical, while live concerts must be very spontaneous.
My parents are proud of me now. However, when I first became involved with rock music, they were afraid.
Seeing a young band, seeing that hunger and the raw spontaneity, is good for me. It keeps me young, so to speak.
I used to be a big arena person. I thought more people equaled more intensity, but smaller places are a lot more intimate, I feel more connected with the audience.
I support a lot of causes, but I do it privately. My profession shouldn't be a platform.
Heavy metal to me implies a relentless, pounding, hitting-people-over-the-head music. Trend setters tend to dismiss it as basic and simple, but all the time that little trends keep coming and going, the Bob Segers, Bruce Springsteens and the Billy Squiers keep staying.
I just stopped playing. I did some screenwriting and got into the nature thing. Music kind of went away.
I try to keep the theatrics to a minimum and let the music do the talking.
I heard that I was off traveling around the world skiing in Argentina and things like that. I may have had a great life in somebody's mind, but all I was seeing was 9th Avenue while going from my house down to the studio in New York City.
Music is cyclical, but I've never thought of the music I make as being so off the wall or left field that it wouldn't always have an audience that would relate to it.
We do things instinctively and not necessarily rationally. It's almost like we're being controlled by unseen forces, which is something I don't like. I've been making a real effort to try to find out what those forces are and get them out of my life.
That's a dangerous combination, serious and rock 'n' roll. But yeah, I'm pretty serious. I've been at this a long time, and it takes a certain amount of seriousness.
I'm the middle-class kid; it doesn't sound exciting, but a lot of my audience is middle-class kids.
