“To me a guitar is kind of like a woman. You don’t know why you like ’em but you do.”

Mainly what I learned from Buddy… was an attitude. He loved music, and he taught me that it shouldn’t have any barriers to it.

I’ve always felt that blues, rock ‘n’ roll and country are just about a beat apart.

Cuz I was never pretty anyway and never cared anything about that.

It was all devastating. I’d never dealt with losing anyone close to me, and I didn’t know where to put it in my life.

His looking at it from over there and it not being a part of his history made it so he could be objective.

Heroes put to the test, keeping a promise, doing their best.

The Hank Williams Syndrome: Come to Nashville, write some good songs, cut some hit records, make money, take all the drugs you can and drink all you can, become a wild man and all of a sudden die.

So I’m not very popular here with those inside the system, as you might guess. I never wanted to be.

The villains have turned into heroes. The heroes have turned into heals.

You know, I feel sorry for the young artists.

Got my Allman Brothers cassettes stacked up on the dash, got some Jack back in the trunk and a tank full of gas.

One night of love don’t make up for six nights alone. But I’d rather have one than none Lord, cause I’m flesh and bone.

Hitting the bottle again, ever than I’ve drunker been. Or is it drunker than I’ve ever been?

Now, I don’t know how they judge all that, but if anybody in the world deserves to be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Ritchie Valens does.

Don’t ever try and be like anybody else and don’t be afraid to take risks.

I never have any problem getting enthusiastic with a good song and a good band.

My vocation is more in composition really than anything else – building up harmonies using the guitar, orchestrating the guitar like an army, a guitar army.

My original interests and intentions in guitar playing were primarily created on quality of tone, for instance, the way the instrument could be made to echo or simulate the human voice.

The Big Band Era is my era. People say, ‘Where did you get your style from?’ I did the Big Band Era on guitar. That’s the best way I could explain it.

Once I get onstage the tension explodes and I’m fine. I’m in another world – in a trance almost, doing what I love best, expressing myself through guitar.

Jimi Hendrix was the most exciting guitarist I’ve ever heard.

I played guitar all my life, all the way through the Yardbirds, but I knew that for me this was going to be a guitar vehicle, because that’s what I wanted it to be.

If you hand me a guitar, I’ll play the blues. That’s the place I automatically go.

I’m only myself when I have a guitar in my hands.