Most people involved in the music business, and it's probably not just the music business... aren't necessarily people that I like.
— Buzz Osborne
Now I have never met a group of people who hate music more than professional roadies, and it is clearly obvious that 99.9 percent of them know nothing at all about music. Nothing. I find this to be quite strange, really. It's like someone who works in a bakery knowing nothing about baking.
I want to travel around the country and make my living playing music. I also try to behave in a way that I would appreciate as a music fan. That's how we conduct ourselves, be it in writing music or playing it live.
If two wrongs don't make a right, then what do three wrongs make? What about four?
To me, traveling by bus is like climbing into a closet and watching 'Das Boot.'
I've liked country music for forever. And Buck Owens is just one of many country guitarists I like. I think Buck's Sixties records are really progressive.
I've always been a huge Butthole Surfers fan. The first time I saw them was in the early '80s when all they had out was their first EP. I thought they were amazing. They've always been a huge influence and one of my all-time favorite bands.
We don't need another Woody. Even Bob Dylan knew he couldn't be Woody Guthrie... I like Woody Guthrie fine, but I don't need the 50th generation version of it.
The Rolling Stones were one of the best bands ever, and 'Sticky Fingers' is one of the best rock albums I've ever heard.
I would love to sell millions of records, but that's never gonna be the case.
It's not the journalists; it's the critics that I can't understand. I've never understood what kind of a person would want to criticize someone else's work.
All teens are in trouble in one form or another.
I started playing guitar when I was in my late teens, and within two years I was starting to play shows.
If you take a band like Nirvana, their biggest hits are structurally the same as even a hair metal band's biggest hits. The structure's not different - the attitude was different. Except it really wasn't. It seemed a little more human.
The best part of touring is playing the shows. I mean, that is the point of touring, at least for me. I have been blessed in that I've always gotten to play with other good musicians.
Stupidity knows no bounds and certainly no city limits, but by and large, 99 percent of the people who come to Melvins shows seem to be relatively well behaved... I'm happy and relieved by this.
I can't go into Oklahoma without thinking about Larry Clark's photography book 'Tulsa.' It's a great book about how life works.
I can't think of any punk who's put on an acoustic and hasn't just tried to sound like James Taylor.
One of my main problems with music is that the basic formula is always the same: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, chorus, chorus, end. One of the bands that changed that was The Beatles. If you listen to 'Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey.' It's three verses, bridge, end.
The band that changed my life was The Who. It's hard to pick just one album, but if I had to pick the one that really showed me how things could be done, it's 'The Who Sell Out.' They really went to town on that, doing something that no one had ever done before.
The Who is one of my favorite bands of all time. 'The Who Sell Out' is one of the greatest art-project albums of all time.
I've always had the idea that multi-millionaire rock stars should work harder than anyone because they have the ability to do it. Look at an artist like Andy Warhol. He never stopped working, even after he didn't need to work again.
I don't want to stay underground for just the cool people.
I never wanted to be part of any scene, I never wanted to be a part of anything, I wanted to do my own thing. Those are the lessons I learned from punk rock.
We went into that knowing that we were never going to sell a major record 'cause we didn't sound like these bands, so I just thought this was an opportunity for us to make the kind of records that we wanted and make some money at the same time.
I never solicited a major label and I certainly wouldn't now.
I've been a list maker for years, even before I was a musician. I was always writing things down and kept long lists of things that would make good album titles and things like that. I'm constantly thinking in terms of songwriting.
Actors really are the scum of the earth. Their behavior makes overpaid rock stars look positively noble.
To me, everything outside of Los Angeles is the 'south,' including places like San Diego. It's sort of like the saying, 'Everything is God.' Indeed it is.
Not one person from the music world has ever come with - as if I could get a rock'n'roller up at four in the morning to play golf - but that's fine. I have way too much going on to sit around waiting for tee time at two in the afternoon.
If I'm listening to country, it's Hank Williams, George Jones, Merle Haggard and stuff like that. If people out there don't take that stuff seriously, well, they just haven't listened to it and don't know what they're talking about.
I was a huge Bowie fan since I was 12 years old. That was the first 'punk' rock I got into in the Seventies. I didn't find out about a lot of the other stuff that was going on, like New York Dolls and Roxy Music, until a lot later.
I conquered my stage fright a long time ago. In my line of work, it's kind of a pre-requisite that you not feel bad about looking stupid in front of a lot of people.
Greg Ginn was certainly a huge influence on my guitar playing. I put him up there with people like Eddie Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen changed everything; I don't necessarily like everything he did, but he definitely changed everything.
I'm not a complainer, I'm a doer.
I'm not interested in constructive criticism, believe me.
By and large musicians are pretty lazy; they don't do a whole lot. They're usually very busy doing nothing.
I've toured the U.S. every single year and I've put a record out every single year whether it was on a major label or not; that doesn't make any difference to me.
