Tommy Shaw Quotes
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I remember my first moment onstage was at a 4-H contest at the Pratville Junior High School cafeteria auditorium around 1965. I had my first electric, a Silvertone with the amp built into the case, and I won first prize.
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I soon gave up instruction for self-teaching
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As a solo artist, I just felt cemented in front of the mike stand. There was very little time to play with the audience and be a band member
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I feel like I have the greatest life an artist could dream of.
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On acoustic guitar I tend to stay in the key of D for some reason. On electric guitar I keep basic: C, G, D, and A. The key of D minor is also real good for me.
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I was born in Alabama and my first live music experiences were in church. Every Sunday we watched regional gospel groups on television singing their hearts out
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I have always been a sucker for the big, upbeat chorus.
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If music became extinct now, I dont know what Id be good for.
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It was more fun trying to figure out I Want To Hold Your Hand than to take lessons. By this time I knew basic chords
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I like being on the road, living in hotels. While I've got a real nice house, I go crazy when I'm there.
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I wish I had a nickel for every song that I've left in the bathroom, written down on a matchbox, or just totally forgotten about
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Success is fickle, but creativity is a gift.
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Songwriting is the other weight on the opposite side of the scale from touring. They balance me out creatively.
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We're kind of defined by our mistakes
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I'm not the kind of guy who deserves to play a vintage guitar because I'm too rough on instruments.
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When I was about 3, my grandfather used to give me and my sister a nickel to sit out on the front porch with him and sing songs.
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When a song gets its legs and begins to come to me, this is the euphoric hook that keeps me wanting to continue.
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You can have fun, but you also have to put on your thinking cap every day
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I don't write on tour. There is so much to do day in and day out when you are on the road.
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There were some older guitarists on my side of town, and I got to know many of them
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I wrote songs all my life, where anyone wanted to hear them or not.
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If I have an idea, I write it down, although I usually carry a little dictation machine with me because I'm too lazy to write
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We were playing popular music, but we were doing our own arrangements because we were too lazy to sit down and figure out the originals
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When you sign with a label, they do insist upon certain rights, and if you have a competent attorney, your rights will be protected.
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I've always stuck with Gibsons. I've had Guilds and Fenders, too, but I always wind up going back to Gibsons.
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I love the idea of stepping out of the band situation into a solo world with no boundaries, no expectations, where nothing is out of bounds.
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I never did heroin, because I thought that meant I was doing heavy drugs, which shows you the insanity of doing drugs. I probably should have done heroin, because I understand heroin actually makes you feel good. Cocaine just makes you stupid.
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By the time I did that third solo album, I'd finally learned how to do it, but I'd also learned that I liked being in a band
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When I became 16 I started thinking seriously about singing.
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I don't like looking back.
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