Jimmy Chamberlin

“If you can get a twelve year-old kid to go listen to Thelonius Monk, what more do you want? Do you want a big pile of cash, too? That's a home run for me.”

“When I'm at home I practice everyday.”

“But back then the thing that saved me was the music, and it's certainly the music that saves me now. The music, my family and my friends and everybody around me.”

“I've always seen my drumming as lyrical anyway.”

“Part of the reason that I left the Pumpkins is because it was becoming all-consuming. Being the only member of that band who had two kids and a wife, it was a hard decision, but ultimately it was a decision I'm comfortable with.”

“No one writes about the emotional things you go through.”

“I want to be 'Jimmy Chamberlin, the drummer, the musician who's done many things,' not just 'that guy from the Smashing Pumpkins.'”

“Music is always going to be only as sophisticated as the culture that consumes it.”

“Music is my life. It is sacred.”

“You start to look at it with a deeper respect and I think that deeper respect for what you do builds more self-respect.”

“All he wants to do is practice and that's all he does, all day long. That's what it takes if you want to change the face of music. You've gotta be committed to it.”

“I can't take days off and play like I did last night. Maybe some people can, but I can't.”

“I always wanted to be in this role, as a songwriter. In the Pumpkins, it was always impossible because Corgan would wake up and write five songs. He was so prolific, there wasn't a lot of room for anyone else.”

“If you put the right things out there the right things will happen.”

“What I see for the band by the end of this year is the Complex live at the Montreux Jazz Festival. I want my guys to be comfortable. I'm certainly not in this for the money, but I'd really like to see my guys make some money off of this stuff.”

“I take my craft very seriously.”

“My brother was always in bands and on the road when I was a kid and he was my inspiration. He never made it with a big band, in fact he never made a record. Here he is fifty-something years old.”

“I think that the jazzy approach that I have is based on the way that I hear music and in the way I play a supporting role to the other people in the band.”

“Today's consumer is less interested in possessing things and more in experiencing them. That's something the music industry needs to get its head around. Do we even need record companies any more?”

“I left the Pumpkins in 2010, and I just took a year off to hang with my family and be with my daughter and my son and my wife, and just get acclimatised to being off the road. Then I started looking at what was going to be the next part of my career/legacy, whatever you want to call it.”