Quotes

I had a nice garage studio at my place in the Hollywood Hills. One day, Frank Zappa knocks on my door and says, 'I hear you have a good studio.' I'm looking at him, with the beard and the hair, wondering who he was.

[On the wah-wah pedal invention] Dick Denney at Vox U.K. invented the original prototype, the midrange boost switch. When it was converted to transistors, they put a variable switch on it. I thought, 'Let's put it on a pedal.' We got one from a Vox organ, and it fit very nicely. After I demonstrated it to all these engineers and music producers, everyone said, 'This will be the greatest thing - the trumpet players are going to love it!'

[On the wah-wah pedal invention] It took five years. It was slow getting off the ground, but that's the problem with being ahead of your time. I still have that original prototype that Vox gave me, and I'd like to see it go into the Smithsonian or Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's that significant.

I played it for James Brown and he really liked my playing, but he didn't understand the wah-wah at all. 'Why the fuck would anyone want a guitar to do that?' I tried to explain that it was a way to allow the guitar to really be expressive and reach people, like a voice, or a harmonica, to reach the soul. He didn't see it.