A friend of mine took me to Memphis advised me that I should get in the musicians' union. He gave me a set of drums and said, Stay on the job, son.
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.
When the second record came out, they started calling it The Band. I voted to call it The Crackers. I'm no fool.
If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.
I don't hear record companies coming up with any good ideas or suggestions. Historically, if it ain't their idea, it ain't no good, so you got that to contend with.
The rock star stuff never came up for us. The Band was never attacked by groupies before, during or after any show that we ever played.
I've always thought it was easier for girls to sing harmonies because their voices can go to that higher plane so much more easy than a male voice.
I love horns, and the bigger the band, the better it sounds to my ear.
With horns and a full rhythm section, the drums always looked like the best seat in the house.
If things are going slow, I'm itchy.
The Band never really played big concert tours. We never sold millions and millions of albums.
I had throat cancer, and I had to have radiation treatments, and I couldn't sing for a long time; and this was in '97. I had 28 radiation treatments. I didn't die, thank God.
Most of our stuff was trial and error. You live with a tape recorder, you turn it on, you play the song and you listen to it.
If you feel like you're getting into a rut with a song, a night off usually fixes it.
I was in high school, trying to get out of high school. The only thing slowing me up was grades.
I never subscribe to the stay-at-home policy. I'm not sick of the road or sick of eating in good restaurants around the country. I like to travel.
When I was younger, I used to drive up to a bunch of turkeys, roll down the window and say something. They'd all gobble back at once.
By the time The Band did The Last Waltz, the chemistry had changed, and it wasn't a thrill anymore to live that studio kind of life.
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.
