Rick Nielsen Quotes

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Rick Nielsen

Profession : Musician

Birth : December 22, 1948

Cheap Trick have always prided ourselves on being groundbreaking.

Rick Nielsen

Basically, I try to let the song dictate what guitar I use. If it's a really loud, crazy song, I'll pull out the cheapest, oldest guitar I own, one that feeds back easily. But most of the time, I just use whatever's around.

Rick Nielsen

I have too many options when it comes to guitars.

Rick Nielsen

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?

Rick Nielsen

Hendrix was a different kind of guitar player. It was like, 'Holy cow, this guy can sing, he can play all this weird stuff... what is this?' It was a new kind of music.

Rick Nielsen

We played New Year's Eve in Los Angeles, maybe 1978, opening for Kansas or somebody. Driving to the hotel after the gig, we came on KLOS. It was like, 'All right! We're in L.A., we just played a big gig, and we're on the radio!' That was the start of something big.

Rick Nielsen

I got to meet Keith Moon!

Rick Nielsen

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

Rick Nielsen

We toured with Deep Purple a number of times.

Rick Nielsen

I've taken all the mirrors out of my house because when I'm playing onstage, I feel like I'm still in high school. I feel like that kid that wanted to play in his first band, and then I look in a mirror, and it's like, 'Uh-oh!' It ain't pretty.

Rick Nielsen

People are like, 'Why are you playing that five-neck guitar?' I want to hurt. I want to play.

Rick Nielsen

Some people collect this or that. I'm a musician; I collect guitars.

Rick Nielsen

People used to trade their guitars to get new ones; I never traded anything.

Rick Nielsen

It's an honor that people give a crap about us. We're in a rock band; we're not supposed to be treated with any respect.

Rick Nielsen

I have four warehouses full of stuff. I have every boarding pass of every flight I've ever been on. I have all the old contracts that we had from all the clubs and concerts we played, every one of them, up from 1980. Guitar picks and amps - it goes on and on.

Rick Nielsen

I was three years old, and I walked onstage during a performance that my father was a tenor in 'The Barber of Seville.' I walked out onstage, and people started laughing and clapping, and that was it. That was all it took. Laughing and clapping, I still enjoy today.

Rick Nielsen

We're a band's band. We have real songs, real players, real problems. Real ups, real downs.

Rick Nielsen

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.

Rick Nielsen

We may not be proud of every song we've ever done - or been forced to do - but I believe we've done more than meets the eye.

Rick Nielsen

You've got to work hard and have luck. Luck only enters in if you do work hard.

Rick Nielsen