Steve Miller

“I'm sort of standing on T-Bone Walker's shoulders, Les Paul's shoulders, Lightnin' Hopkins' shoulders, Muddy Waters' shoulders, you know? And if I've inspired other people, I'm pleased. That pleases me greatly.”

“The record business has been so unpleasant and so bad for so long.”

“I played American football, but I did my best work with baseball.”

“We are living in a country that has taken the short view on everything. We have sold our future.”

“I've demanded respect for myself and my band and my peers, I've demanded full artistic control for my music, I advocate for artists and music education wherever I can. And I'm a nice guy.”

“My father had a phenomenal knowledge of music; my mom's family were all musicians.”

“The way it worked was my mom came from a musical family, and my dad didn't - he was a pathologist.”

“I've known Chicago for 50 years; we used to play shows at the Avalon Ballroom.”

“I love performing, and connecting with an audience never gets old for me, but it does get old for me when my audience is just only interested in something they've already heard.”

“From the minute I became aware of Jimmie Vaughan and his playing, he was one of my very favorites. So I made it my business to meet him and become friends with him - to work with him and record some of his material.”

“Being talented was a hard way to make it. But I made it on my talent and songs.”

“I never considered myself like a pop musician or rock star, because that didn't really exist when I started.”

“When I was a kid this is what I was listening to on my car radio - Lowell Fulsom singing 'Tramp.'”

“From the time I was 12 until I was 21, Chuck Berry was my favorite artist.”

“The truth of the matter is, things that feel spontaneous have a much longer life than things that have got a lot of burnt brain tissue to make them perfect.”

“For the longest time, I was uninterested in dealing with EMI Records.”

“From a small child to right now - I mean, when I was five years old, Red Norville, Tal Farlow, Charles Mingus, Les Paul, Mary Ford, people like that were coming over to my house. So I was around professional adult mature musicians who had had big careers.”

“I kind of enjoyed having people complain that I wasn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame more than I think I'll like being in it.”

“The digital world is so convenient and nice, but just playing back a vinyl record is a much warmer, hotter, more present feeling.”

“You know, songs like 'Rock'n Me' were actually written to be played in large... for a hundred thousand people kind of gatherings. And a lot of what came out on 'Fly Like an Eagle' and 'Book of Dreams' was music that was put together to be played in big, big venues with big light shows.”