Rory Gallagher Quotes

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Rory Gallagher

Profession : Musician

Birth : March 2, 1948

The strange thing is I can't play jigs or reels or any of that traditional Irish stuff as well as I ought to, whereas I think I have got a good ear for blues, the tonality of it and so on.

Rory Gallagher

Ideally, I'd really like to put my own stamp on things, but it takes years, you know, and you're constantly learning and studying and falling in and out with your instrument, learning different approaches and different attacks.

Rory Gallagher

I think that I set such high standards for myself that sometimes I expect other people to live up to these standards, and it's not fair because they're not setting the same goals for themselves.

Rory Gallagher

The difficulties people have with me are purely musical things, never personality things. But, you know that's just the way it goes. I like to get things right!

Rory Gallagher

Playing live is much more natural for me. The instant reaction and the feedback from the audience is great for me. I really relish it. And if you play blues-based music, it's not really academic music or recital music. It really needs a bit of atmosphere and a bit of interplay and a bit of roughness, and you really get that with an audience.

Rory Gallagher

I didn't even have a record player as a kid, so everything was down to radio.

Rory Gallagher

Even though I was a rock 'n' roll fan, hearing the raw blues was like listening to music on a much deeper kind of level.

Rory Gallagher

If anything, even though I can play in the sort of standard string-bending style, in the B.B. King mold and all of that, I've always had a great interest in the more primitive playing, the open chord playing, rhythm and figures.

Rory Gallagher

I kept playing blues-based music all during the 1980s, and it was tough.

Rory Gallagher

I've been playing a Fender since 1963, and before that it was my dream guitar. I can't endorse it more than that.

Rory Gallagher

I liked Slash. He's a nice guy and can really play.

Rory Gallagher

I like a nice rumble on bass, openness on guitar and drums that breathe.

Rory Gallagher

Playing live is my natural element. It's too hard to relax in the studio because there are too many options. It's just not as exciting.

Rory Gallagher

It's dangerous not to tour, because people assume you've faded away, or have no interest.

Rory Gallagher

My favorite lineup is just a trio, because then every night you can improvise and change the repertoire. Keyboards and brass can be great, but it puts you in a different ballgame because you're not quite as free. You have to stick to the arrangement of the song.

Rory Gallagher

I spend most of my time in London but I come back to Ireland whenever I can.

Rory Gallagher

I have my own stubborn attitude about how I want to play and where I want to go.

Rory Gallagher

Audiences aren't that different for my show from area to area. Other acts, I think, experiences differences, but not me.

Rory Gallagher

I started on acoustic guitar after I heard Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy.

Rory Gallagher

Lonnie Donegan and the folk movement were responsible for a lot of the spread of the blues in England. The group Them with Van Morrison was a big influence on me, too, as were The Stones; The Yardbirds, John Mayall, and the other British blues pioneers.

Rory Gallagher