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It's A Weird Thing When You Make Records. You Try To Hear It Before You Make It, So You Walk Into The Studio With This Idea Of What You Expect To Happen, And That Usually Changes. That Usually Turns Into Something Else, And That's A Good Thing. If Everything Was As You Imagined It To Be, It Just Wouldn't Be As Much Fun.

-Dave Grohl

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It's A Weird Thing

Dave Grohl

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It's A Weird Thing When You Make Records. You Try To Hear It Before You Make It, So You Walk Into The Studio With This Idea Of What You Expect To Happen, And That Usually Changes. That Usually Turns Into Something Else, And That's A Good Thing. If Everything Was As You Imagined It To Be, It Just Wouldn't Be As Much Fun.

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When I Was A Teenager, Working Towards Dropping Out Of High School To Starting To Tour With Bands, I'd Drive Around In My Vw Bug Every Morning Before School, Very Stoned Listening Over And Over To Zeppelin. This Song Got To Me Because It Just Seemed Mystical. There Is Something About Those Celtic Tunings That Almost Sounds Eastern. Somehow It Would Sweep Me Up Into My Own Little Trance-like State, Like Sting With Those Shamans In The Amazon. But All I Had Was A Bong And A Led Zeppelin Cassette.

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When Something Good Comes Your Way, You Better Feel Fortunate, Because It Doesn't Last Forever.

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Things You Love

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Falling In Love

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Love Of My Life

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I'm Kind Of Claustrophobic... It's Not Even Like Enclosed Spaces. It's Like I Hate Being Stuck In One Band, You Know? Just Being Stuck Is The Biggest Drag, For Fear That, You Know, Just That You Can't Get Out.

Your Personal History Is A Part Of What Happens With Your Hands And Your Head As You Play Music.

Personal History

To Me The Most Important Thing Is Getting Into A Studio And Making An Album That Is 12 Or 14 Amazing Songs, Getting Up Onstage, And Making People Happy By Livening The Rock.

The Thing That Will Never Go Away Is That Connection You Make With A Band Or A Song Where You're Moved By The Fact That It's Real People Making Music. You Make That Human Connection With A Song Like 'let It Be' Or 'long And Winding Road' Or A Song Like 'bohemian Rhapsody' Or 'roxanne,' Any Of Those Songs. They Sound Like People Making Music.

A Lot Of People Are Promoting Records That Are Just Throw-it-agains T-the-wall-see- If-it-sticks Meaningless Bullshit. Everybody Has The Responsibility To Do The Right Thing And Promote Artists That Mean Something.

Whenever I Say I Made A Record In The Garage, People Just Assume That I Have, Like, A Lear Jet Parked In There Or Something. But Really There's Old Luggage, A Couple Of Bikes. It's Big Enough To Put One Minivan In. That's It. No Dartboard. I'm So Not Macho.

I Love Black Sabbath. They Made An Amazing Contribution To Music Today. Almost Every Band That Made It Big In The Nineties Owed A Debt To Them.

You Look Up To Your Heroes And You Shouldn't Be Intimidated By Them; You Should Be Inspired By Them.

There Weren't A Lot Of Career Opportunities In Crazy-fast Hardcore Punk, So You Didn't Have A Lot Of Ambition, Just The Love And Passion To Play Music With Your Friends.

I Taught Myself How To Play The Guitar, I Taught Myself How To Play The Drums, And I Kind Of Fake Doing Both Of Them. But Drumming Comes More Natural To Me, And It Just Feels Better.

Rock Stars Are Like Sports Stars: If You Snap Your Ankle, You're Done.

I Had Long Hair Since I Was 17 Years Old. It Was Time For Me To Let Go. I Hated Being The Guy At The Wedding In A Suit With A Ponytail.

Guilt Is Cancer. Guilt Will Confine You, Torture You, Destroy You As An Artist. It's A Black Wall. It's A Thief.

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How Do I Stay Humble? Because I'm The Best At Being Humble.

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Actually, I Didn't Start Sweating Until I Had Children.

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When You're Young, You're Not Afraid Of What Comes Next. You're Excited By It.

There's Always Gonna Be Rock N' Roll Bands, There's Always Gonna Be Kids That Love Rock N' Roll Records, And There Will Always Be Rock N' Roll.

Always Have The Highest Bar For Yourself. Wake Up Everyday And No Matter How Crappy You Feel, Want To Change Something For The Better. Do Something That Makes Someone Happy. Create Something That Inspires Someone. Be Someone's Light When They Are Hopeless.

Make Someone Happy

I Think Musicians Like Me Are Drawn To Those Older Desks, Not Just Because They're Legend And Lore But Also Because They Do Something Really Specific That Is Hard To Emulate Or Re-create Digitally.

I Think The Producers Or Whoever's Doing The Show Are Tripping So Hard. They Must Be On Acid. They Live In This, Like, Weird Grass Mound And There's This 'sun' In The Sky With This Little Baby's Face That's Just, Like, Bleaaargh-aarghagh. It's Just So Totally Insane. It's Such An Acid Thing, Man. For Kids!

A Long Time Ago, I Made A Promise To Myself: "okay, You Know What? I'm Going To Play Music, And Hopefully I'll Make Enough Money That I Can Go Back To School. Once I Make Enough Money To Put Myself Through School, That's What I'm Going To Do."

To Women, Drummers Seem Like These Adorable, Sexy Neanderthals, And Lead Singers Seem Mysterious And Dangerous. So While The Lead Singers All Want To Be David Bowie, Floating Into Parties And Being The Center Of Attention, It's The Drummers Who Are In The Corner Doing Keg Stands And Breaking Tables. Usually It's The Drummers Who Get The Fun-loving Ladies And The Singers Who Get The Nutcases.

There's Poetry In Being The Band That Can Sell Out Wembley But Also Makes A Record In A Garage. I Don't Like Doing What People Expect Me To Do.

The Most Important Thing Is That You Honor That Musical Integrity, Whether You Make Music That Sounds Like Abba Or You Make Music That Sounds Like Void.

Usually, When You Go In To Make A Record, You Have 30 Songs, And You Record 30 Of Them, And 12 Of Them Make It To The Record.

A Musician Should Only Sound Like What They Do, And No Two Musicians Sound The Same. It's An Individual-feel Thing, You Know?

I Never Went To Rock Concerts When I Was A Kid. I Didn't See Any Rock & Roll Bands.

There Are Times When I Feel Like I'm A Traveling Minister. I'm Trying To Go Out And Get Kids To Pick-up Yard Sale Instruments And Change The World.

I Think Actually Singing The Words Is More Therapeutic Than Just Sitting Down To Write Them, Because Then You Are Letting It Out, And It's Coming From Your Gut.

I'm Not Like A Voracious Hoarder Who Has 50,000 Albums Of Vinyl Stacked In A Storage Space In The San Fernando Valley. But I Do Have Albums From The Last 40 Years Of My Life.

I Never Needed Much, And I Never Thought I'd Get More Than What I Had. A Trip To Burger King Was The Biggest Thing In The World To Me. Heaven.

Being In Nirvana Was Amazing An Experience That Will Never Happen Again For Me. And I Look On Them As Some Of The Best And Worst Times Of My Life.

Time Of My Life

When I Joined Nirvana, I Was The Fifth Or Sixth Drummer - I Don't Know If They'd Ever Had A Drummer They Were Totally Happy With. And They Were Strangers. There Was Never Much Of A Deeper Connection Outside Of The Music.

I Listen To Boy Band Music Before I Have To Fire Someone.

I Think My Biggest Musical Hero Growing Up Was Probably Ian Mackaye He Set A Great Example For All Of Us Local Musicians. Still To This Day I See Him As The Best Example Of A Right-on Musician.

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Marquis De Lafayette

George R. R. Martin

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