Rock Star Quotes can be fun to look back on…
OK, so Christmas is over, but perhaps you have some time off, and there’s a quiet morning stretching ahead of you. Or maybe you are sitting through the Christmas special of Downton Abbey and wondering why your own aged relatives’ attempts at humour are never quite as amusing as Dame Maggie Smith‘s latest sparkly put-down.
What you need is something to raise a smile and occupy the mind. A combination of quiz and sparkly wit. And who better to provide it that a coked-up rock star?
(Disclaimer: Some of the quotes below may have come from non-coked-up rock stars).
The things rock stars say are one of the many reasons why we love rock n roll. There’s the music first of course. The rush and excitement of a live show. The challenge to the establishment.
But there’s also the people who make the records. When rock stars meet journalists we witness on one side the desire to promote a record as efficiently and quickly as possible to get a hovering PR person off their back, and then (often) a general wish to be left alone to sleep off a hangover.
On the other side, the journalist is looking for an interesting quote beyond the usual “we’re much happier with the new record than we were the last one”, or “our last record company didn’t really get behind the last record, so we had to leave” (i.e. we were dropped).
So on the rare occasion when a rock star has something to say, it is a great treat. Or even when they don’t have anything to say, but they say it anyway and get into loads of trouble.
The following quotes all have the benefit of being indiscreet or amusing, or vaguely interesting.
The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to match each quote up to the person who said it. PS. There’s two here from Keith Moon – because I couldn’t decide between the two:
- “There was a knock on our dressing room door. Our manager shouted “The Police are here!” Oh man we panicked. Flushed everything down the john. Then the door opened and it was Sting and Stuart Copeland“.
- “I’m sure there have been a few fashion mistakes but overall I’m as cool as F–“
- (Talking about having a maid) “We’d have all-night drug binges and when I’d wake up, the cocaine would be neatly stacked on the table and any pills placed in bowls like M&Ms”
- “He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup”
- “We were at Top of the Pops and our manager was stood talking to one of The Nolan Sisters. He dropped his lighter on the floor and he went down for it, and she said “While you’re down there…” You don’t expect one of The Nolan Sisters to say that”.
- “I don’t like the crappy slogans Wham! have got: “Make it big” and “Go for it”. Go for what? An all-year suntan?”
- “The question is: “How much more black could it be?” And the answer is: None. None more black.”
- “I said to Rod, “Where are you going?” He said “Bournemouth” “So’m I” I said. “I’m going down there to see my chick. He said “So’m I”. So I showed Rod a picture of Kim, and he said “Yeah…that’s ‘er”. Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
- “I believe that English kids have soul. When I watch Walter Cronkite or Victory at Sea, or You Are There – any of those programs, I see bombs flying all over England and little kids running. Now that’s probably Paul McCartney running. You know, ’cause that’s where the bombs fell. They say soul comes through suffering. Slavery for the blacks. And gettin’ your ass bombed off is another way of gettin’ some soul, so I would say these English cats have a lot of soul legitimately”.
- “Mick Jagger is the only man I seriously wanted to f–“
- “My parents were extremely disapproving of it all. Because it was just not done. This was for very low class people, remember. Rock n Roll singers weren’t educated people”.
- “So there I was, sitting in the eight-foot-six in the driver’s seat of a Lincoln Continental, underwater. And the water was pouring in – coming in through the bloody pedal ‘oles in the floorboard. So I’m sitting there, thing about me situation, as the water creeps up me nose…. I figured there’d be quite a crowd gathered there. But no. There’s only one person – the pool cleaner – and ‘e’s got to have the pool clean in the morning, and he’s furious”.
- “The doc said “And what about alcohol? How many units per day?” I said “Oh about four? Give or take”. “Can you be more specific?” “Bottles of Hennesey…. Beer doesn’t count, does it?”
And here are the people who said those quotes above…
- Liam Gallagher
- Nigel Tufnell
- Paul Weller
- Pete Townsend
- Ozzy Osbourne
- Mick Jagger (1995)
- Keith Richards
- Phil Spector
- Noel Gallagher (about Liam)
- Keith Moon
- Nikki Sixx
- Lemmy
- Keith Moon
Enjoy! Best of luck! Answers (alongside those for my previous music quiz) will be published next week on my Facebook page…
Sources include these excellent books: I Am Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne; Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy! compiled by Dylan Jones; Hail! Hail! Rock n Roll by John Harris; The Rolling Stone Interviews; Who I Am by Pete Townsend
Record #133: The Who – Won’t Get Fooled Again
Every record tells a story 
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