John Popper

“It's pretty much if you're not from New Jersey, I can't play with you.”

“If there's a common thread running through all the H.O.R.D.E. bands, it's the emphasis on live improvisational music.”

“Try to own the songs you write because you could get lucky, but you are ultimately going to have to perform your own sounds.”

“I can't live the way I used to. It will be really cool if some day I could eat a hot fudge sundae.”

“I'm just funny enough as a comedian to know I'm not good enough to be a comedian.”

“If the audience can connect with you, then you've done something that lasts. I think that's what any good art is.”

“There's a lot of struggling and a lot of activity going on in my playing. Blues Traveler adopted that style. People will say we play too many notes. That's what they said about Amadeus.”

“I think I'm a much better songwriter than I am promoter, and who would want the job of promoter - it's a miserable business.”

“You always think the new record is your best.”

“Never count on a royalty check.”

“I use the songwriting as medicine to kind of help me summarize how I'm feeling so that I can get past it.”

“Throughout history, musicians have never counted on intellectual property really getting them rich.”

“A lot has changed in music since I began playing in 1987.”

“The diversity of H.O.R.D.E. is overwhelming while still catering to the fans.”

“You know, Blues Traveler is its own thing.”

“I like the aesthetic of weaponry.”

“When you're in the studio, you have to get the bare-bones, crystallized version of the song you've written. That's the blueprint for everything else. Then, when you're on stage, you don't have to be so faithful to the original; you can mess with it a bit.”

“Rock has its own vocabulary, but you can approach it with freedom.”

“The good bands take people on a journey with them; You look at the Beach Boys and the Beatles and you see a growth, you see a story just on their albums. I think we can do that.”

“They told me my arteries were 95 percent blocked.”