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Tommy Shaw Quotes

Tommy Shaw Quotes

Enjoy the top 38 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Tommy Shaw.

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

Success is fickle, but creativity is a gift.

— Tommy Shaw

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

— Tommy Shaw

“I was born in Alabama and my first live music experiences were in church. Every Sunday we watched regional gospel groups on television singing their hearts out.”

— Tommy Shaw

“I don't like looking back.”

— Tommy Shaw

“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.”

— Tommy Shaw

“When I was about 3, my grandfather used to give me and my sister a nickel to sit out on the front porch with him and sing songs.”

— Tommy Shaw

“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.”

— Tommy Shaw

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.

— Tommy Shaw

“We were playing popular music, but we were doing our own arrangements because we were too lazy to sit down and figure out the originals.”

— Tommy Shaw

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

— Tommy Shaw

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.

— Tommy Shaw

“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.”

— Tommy Shaw

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

— Tommy Shaw

“I've always stuck with Gibsons. I've had Guilds and Fenders, too, but I always wind up going back to Gibsons.”

— Tommy Shaw

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

— Tommy Shaw

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

— Tommy Shaw

“We're kind of defined by our mistakes.”

— Tommy Shaw

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

— Tommy Shaw

“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.”

— Tommy Shaw

“On acoustic guitar I tend to stay in the key of D for some reason. On electric guitar I keep basic: C, G, D, and A. The key of D minor is also real good for me.”

— Tommy Shaw

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

— Tommy Shaw

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.

— Tommy Shaw

“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.”

— Tommy Shaw

“I soon gave up instruction for self-teaching.”

— Tommy Shaw

“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.”

— Tommy Shaw

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

— Tommy Shaw

When it stops being fun, stop.

— Tommy Shaw

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