Blues teaches you to develop coherent solos, because the form you're playing over is so basic. You have to develop leads that go someplace.

I'll hear something in my head, then eventually play it. But it's a subconscious thing. Most of the time I really don't know what I'm playing.

My first joint I smoked onstage in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I smoked my first joint live.

When I'm with Purple, I'm totally with Purple; when I'm doing my thing, I'm totally doing my own thing.

I have my own style, but it's different for each kind of music. There are certain little characteristic things every player has.

I can't do anything but play guitar.

You're in direct contact with the music by having the strings under your fingers. It's not mechanical like a piano.

If you're not having fun it's not worth doing.

I came in with a completely new perspective. I would write songs and they would pick tunes they felt were in the Purple vein.

I don't like English bands. They're too structured.

When you come from the Midwest, you have a more open mind than if you come from the West Coast or the East Coast.

Always love more than they deserve.

I wasn’t able to be that person for you, and I did a terrible thing. I feel awful about it. But there was something wrong between us from the start, as if we’d done the buttons up wrong.

I would call myself a Gnostic. Which means, I'm interested in pursuing and understanding the spiritual nature of things. A Gnostic is somebody seeking knowledge of that aspect of reality.

I love playing outsiders, I always do.

Being on tour is like being in limbo. It's like going from nowhere to nowhere.

There's the juiciest music that makes me so happy, music that I need on that deserted island when I'm stranded for the rest of my life, and nobody cares that it's there.

If someone can watch an entire season of a TV series in one day, doesnt that show an incredible attention span?

It’s not stress that kills people, but how they react to it.

May our lives be born from the beauty of darkness, and shine with the possibility of light.

Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it.