Quotes By Tommy Shaw

When I became 16 I started thinking seriously about singing.

When it stops being fun, stop.

I don't like looking back.

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.

I'd better be on the road, or I'll be going nuts. I'm not the kind of guy who sits around with a pipe and slippers watching soap operas.

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.

Once you start thinking about it in a mercenary frame of mind, then you're finished. You're a joke, because there are too many mercenaries out there already.

I soon gave up instruction for self-teaching.

Les Pauls work out real well for me because I'll beat the hell out of them and they'll still work. The only trouble with them is finding good ones.

I'm not the kind of guy who deserves to play a vintage guitar because I'm too rough on instruments.

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.

Make sure you know what you are signing when you sign a recording contract.

We're kind of defined by our mistakes.

I wrote songs all my life, where anyone wanted to hear them or not.

Songwriting is the other weight on the opposite side of the scale from touring. They balance me out creatively.

I have always been a sucker for the big, upbeat chorus.

You can have fun, but you also have to put on your thinking cap every day.

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.

If music became extinct now, I don't know what I'd be good for.

I don't write on tour. There is so much to do day in and day out when you are on the road.

When a song gets its legs and begins to come to me, this is the euphoric hook that keeps me wanting to continue.

Timing is everything.

Around '75 when the recession hit, club owners started going to disco because it was cheaper for them to just buy a sound system than it was to hire a band.

It is all about being open and paying attention to the music in your head. I think most people have original music playing in their heads from time to time.

Success is fickle, but creativity is a gift.

I like being on the road, living in hotels. While I've got a real nice house, I go crazy when I'm there.

When you sign with a label, they do insist upon certain rights, and if you have a competent attorney, your rights will be protected.

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.

I feel like I have the greatest life an artist could dream of.

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.