Tommy Shaw Quotes

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Tommy Shaw

Profession : Musician

Birth : September 11, 1953

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

When it stops being fun, stop.

Tommy Shaw

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

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

There were some older guitarists on my side of town, and I got to know many of them.

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

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

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

When I became 16 I started thinking seriously about singing.

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

Les Pauls work out real well for me because I'll beat the hell out of them and they'll still work. The only trouble with them is finding good ones.

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

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

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 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

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

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'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

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