Quotes By Levon Helm

My dad and I played music. He teaches me a song or two every time I'm home.

Conway Twitty was always our local hero while I was growing up. He had a series of good bands. I wanted to sit in, if Conway would let me. And he did a couple of times.

If you feel like you're getting into a rut with a song, a night off usually fixes it.

You can either make it come around or you can't. By the time we would be ready to record a song, we would know for sure that it was the best way we could do it.

With horns and a full rhythm section, the drums always looked like the best seat in the house.

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.

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.

I was in high school, trying to get out of high school. The only thing slowing me up was grades.

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

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

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

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.

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

If things are going slow, I'm itchy.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.