Quotes By Levon Helm

There were no rules, other than that the song should sound good and be fun to play.

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.

Don't we all want what's best for each other?

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.

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.

The crowd is just as important as the group. It takes everything to make it work.

Dad and mom would have preferred that I be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, or a great humanitarian.

If things are going slow, I'm itchy.

I like to get within handshaking distance of the crowd. If it happens, they know it, we know it, and that's all we came here for.

Drums usually seem to tune themselves.

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.

I love horns, and the bigger the band, the better it sounds to my ear.

I've had all the lessons I could get. I've learned from everybody I've ever met.

Forever Young, by Dylan, is one of my favorite songs.

Lord, when the song wants to pick up and go a little faster towards the end, it's hard for me to resist.

Anytime I switch to another instrument, I immediately turn it into another kind of drum so that I can understand it better.

Good times don't last long sometimes.

The way to do it is to put as much life into the song as I can. You can either get it to breathe or you can't.

Drums just always sounded like the most fun part of that good music for me.

Well, somebody's got to sing. They won't hire you unless you sing.

When the second record came out, they started calling it The Band. I voted to call it The Crackers. I'm no fool.

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 don't fool with a lot of things that I can't have fun with. There's not much reward in that.

We all love musical architecture; there's no doubt about that.

The Jungle Bush Beaters didn't last too long as a group, but we had a pretty good time while we did.

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.

The Band never really played big concert tours. We never sold millions and millions of albums.

If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.

We're all dealt with the same hand here, so to speak. I feel like I've had it a lot better than most people. I've had the opportunity to travel and play music all my life.

If you pour some music on whatever's wrong, it'll sure help out.