Top 117 Quotes & Sayings by Rick Nielsen

I love to be the loudest thing in the room.

Look at Bob Dylan: his voice is not a great sound, but it gets the idea across... and that is what's really important.

I got to work with John Lennon. That was pretty cool.

I did what I believed in. It got me in trouble, but it also got me a job.

When I write songs, it's just me and a cassette player - or at least it used to be before smartphones - to quickly record a basic idea.

Some people design buildings and aircraft carriers and cars - and I designed picks.

If you can say something special on the guitar, then you're going to perk my ears up. But if you're just gonna run through all the scales, then I can always find something else to listen to.

I feel like such an idiot... you know, that our band didn't break up just so we can re-form and become more and more popular.

I didn't want to be one of the Beach Boys or one of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band. I mean, we appreciated that music. But I didn't want to grow a beard to look like Roy Wood just because I liked him.

I could have moved anywhere I wanted to. But for family reasons, I stayed in the Midwest.

There's no rush to ever put out a new Cheap Trick record. We put it out when we feel like it.

Every other year, I spend Thanksgiving in England with Dave Clark from the Dave Clark Five and a bunch of other people.

I always use my Les Paul. I have a Hamer as well. I use a Tele and an Esquire - once in a while, I will use a Strat, and I never use any pedals... except for in my car.

Some bands, they're too snooty, or they think they're too this or that and wouldn't talk to us. And some other bands are afraid to talk to us.

The Sex Pistols had it all - they had the snarl, they had the I-don't-give-a-crap attitude - plus, they could play.

I'm kind of a goony guy, a dweeb or a geek.

I never tried to emulate The Beatles, and I never really wanted to be like The Rolling Stones. I never really felt that I had the look or the demeanor of veteran musicians.

I think I've probably had one of my guitars on display at every Hard Rock Cafe in the world.

I can't stand it when groups come back for an encore, and they play some slow thing. Oh, brother! It's like, 'Had I known that, I would've left.'

We played with Rush somewhere way early in our career.

Duane Eddy is somebody I wanted to play like. I discovered him before The Beatles, and he totally got to me. He sent me a note back in 1977 and said that he really liked what Cheap Trick were doing. That's one of those 'Wow!' moments, you know?

Our band is rock n' roll. We were never just a studio band trying to make everything perfect. It was never supposed to be perfect. It was supposed to be cool.

Have a good work ethic. You've got to practice, practice, practice. I'm not telling you what to practice - that's up to you.

I like Harvey Mandel.

To me, a day off is sitting at a piano or with a guitar and writing.

I was never going to be very cute. I always looked for the best people to play with and, 'cause, to make myself look better.

I knew the guys in the Allman Brothers way back in the day, before they were famous.

I never wanted to be Keith Richards or Jimmy Page.

We all record together. We do it live; then, after that, we do overdubs, if we need to, to repair stuff. Usually when we do stuff, we have to make sure we get the bass and drums down, and by doing it live, you're actually playing the song. You're not piecing together a song.

If we waited for a hit record to tour, we would never have toured.

The way I look at it, I'm a songwriter that just happens to play guitar.

Living someplace like L.A. seemed awful to me.

I was always the wise guy class clown throughout my childhood.

I took one guitar lesson, and they wanted me to play 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' or 'Michael Row the Boat Ashore,' and that was the last guitar lesson that I ever took, so I taught myself what I wanted to know.

I just wanted to write about stuff that was happening in real life, and that's not just love songs about your girlfriend.

I'd rather be musical than technical.

I've owned about 2,000 guitars through the years because I've traded a lot and given away and sold some stuff.

Nobody wants to hear long speeches.

If you're going to be ridiculous, be over-the-top ridiculous.

We always record with the whole band. That's key to capturing the feel, especially trying to get a good basic track.

I like 'Salty Dog' by Procol Harum.

The song 'Hello There' was written because we never got a soundcheck. 'Hello There' was our soundcheck.

I've seen bands come out and begin their concerts with these long, slow, boring songs. Are they kidding, or what?

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - those guys were great.

I started out as a drummer, and when I was 9, my drum teacher had an album out. He was the rudiment king! He signed it for me, 'Rudimentally yours, Frank Arsenault.' How cool is that?

I always thought of myself as more of a rhythm player than a big soloist.

If you can make it in Rockford, you can make it anywhere.

My parents were both opera singers, and they also were both heavily into religious and church music.

I always hated watching bands: the guy would break a string or be out of tune, and I have perfect pitch, so it would always tick me off when a guy is up there, and he'd break a string.

I don't know any American rock bands.

I was the Richard Gere non-lookalike in Illinois.

In 1977, I had Paul Rivera hotrod six Fender Deluxes for me. At that time, a lot of studio guys in L.A. were using those - not so much live guys but studio guys. They had terrific tone and great technique, and I was like, 'Well, I like having terrific tone even though I don't have any technique.'

When a guitarist can evoke a certain mood through his playing, that's what's most important to me.

The only time I have a problem is when I have to get in a vehicle after we play and sit there in a cramped position for a couple of hours to drive to the next place. Then I get super stiff.

I actually did try to emigrate to Australia a long time ago.

Playing it safe isn't fun; you have to take a chance.

I love guitars, and guitars love me, but sometimes they need new homes where they can live to rock another day.

Every person I've ever met always thinks their parents are weird.

If you don't have a great chorus, write a good bridge first. I often do that and find I write good bridges.

The Ramones were American, and I knew about them, and I thought they were interesting. But they were like a pop band to me.