Quotes

[about close friend legendary drummer Gene Krupa] Gene was the first one who made it possible for guys like me to become popular--to be noticed. We all owe him a great deal of gratitude.

Ringo Starr was adequate. No more than that.

There is no greatest or fastest in music. It's just impossible. There probably is a boy somewhere in Idaho that no one's ever heard of who's probably better than anyone else.

I don't put much emphasis on practice, anyhow. I think it's a fallacy to believe that the more you practice, the better you become. You can only get better by playing. You can sit in a basement with a set of drums and practice rudiments all day long, but unless you play with a band, you won't learn style, technique and taste, and you won't learn how to play with a band and for a band. Once you get a job, any kind of job, it's an opportunity to develop. And practice, besides that, is boring. I know music teachers who tell their students to practice three, four, six hours a day. If you can't get what you want after one hour of practice, you're not going to get it in four days.

I don't care about notes. I care about time. If you're in my band, you must play my time.

Rock music is the landing spot for drummers with poor to mediocre technique.

My manager would call me and be like, "Buddy, do this rock album, Buddy, do this country album" and I would always hang up on him. Rock music I don't listen to regularly, but there's some adequate bands. Country music is bottom of the barrel trash that appeals to those who need everything spelled out for them.

Yeah, playing drums with bare hands is possible, but I don't do it. Why destroy your hands? I think of many uses for my hands other than breaking them on the rim of a drum.