Jeff Beck

I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever.

I don’t care about the rules, if I don’t break the rules at least 10x every song then I’m not doing my job.

I love it when people hear my music but can’t figure out what instrument I’m playing.

When Jazz broke through in England, I remember sneaking to listen on the radio much to my parent’s disapproval.

[Stratocaster vs Les Paul] It’s a totally different animal. One is for very subtle and, I would say, more musical things that you can distract and abuse. You can’t do that with a Les Paul. It’s too delicate. It’s got a very delicate tone; most people don’t ever realize that because they are plugged into monstrous amplifiers which completely, instantaneously covers up the unique sound quality it has. All those years of development go straight out the window when you overload the amp.

My Strat is another arm, it’s part of me. It doesn’t feel like a guitar at all. It’s an implement which is my voice.

It doesn’t matter all that much. It’s just that when you’re playing, Stephane, you’ve got both Chaput and me backing you, but when I’m soloing I’ve only got one guitar behind me!

Music should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise. It’s easy to rediscover part of yourself, but through art you can be shown part of yourself you never knew existed. That’s the real mission of art. The artist has to find something within himself that’s universal and which he can put into terms that are communicable to other people. The magic of it is that art can communicate to a person without his realizing it.

I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player and a special award in 1961 for quietness.

I’m my own most merciless critic onstage.

I play whatever the hell comes out… that’s it.

If you listen to Donny Hathaway, he had a lot of jazz elements in the way he sang, … For me, the two styles borrow from each other so much that sometimes it’s hard for me to make a distinction. When you hear Lalah sing the combination, that’s when she really shines – when she’s allowed to dip into her jazz when she wants to and then get soulful and do the R ‘n’ B thing.

Music is interior decoration.

If everyone liked what I did, I probably wouldn’t be playing anything of depth.

Music is the only language in which you cannot say anything sarcastic.

I don’t get jazz. It always sounds like a bunch of toddlers let loose in a music room.

Sounds of daily life are musical. I try to absorb the intricacies of sounds as if I were listening to music.

Sometimes it’s to your advantage for people to think you’re crazy.

Music was our wife and we loved her. We stayed with her, clothed her and put diamond rings on her hands.

Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking.

Music is a verb.