Billy Squier

We do things instinctively and not necessarily rationally. It's almost like we're being controlled by unseen forces, which is something I don't like. I've been making a real effort to try to find out what those forces are and get them out of my life.

When a band retires or is In hiding, a void is created. The fans' need is still there.

I just stopped playing. I did some screenwriting and got into the nature thing. Music kind of went away.

Music became so commercialized that I just didn't want anything to do with it. I renounced the industry before it became the fashionable thing to do.

I read one article that called me the 'latest pretender to the Led Zeppelin throne.'... If I saw the guy I'd knock him out. Because that's not true - I'm not pretending anything. If my records sell, it's because of me.

I try to keep the theatrics to a minimum and let the music do the talking.

Piper took me one step further in that it got my first real recording contract but the band just didn't quite mature. It didn't break things open, but it got me to the door.

I heard that I was off traveling around the world skiing in Argentina and things like that. I may have had a great life in somebody's mind, but all I was seeing was 9th Avenue while going from my house down to the studio in New York City.

I don't have to forsake my career as a musician. I know how to write songs - that's not going to leave me. But I think it's good to explore some other avenues.

I don't sit around going, 'What is the matter with me? What do I have to do to get a hit?' And I don't also sit home and listen to my record every day and get drunk and go, 'Wow, this is great.'

Music is cyclical, but I've never thought of the music I make as being so off the wall or left field that it wouldn't always have an audience that would relate to it.

People say, 'When are you making this comeback?' I say, 'It's not a comeback, it's a record.' They say, 'Where have you been all these years?' I say, 'I've been making records.'

I'm not gonna get it all right, but I take my victories, as small as they are.

What I do is a bit broader in scope than a heavy metal band like Iron Maiden, Motorhead, ACDC and so on.

At all points, you have to look at what you're doing and say, 'Do I want to do this?' 'Am I up to it?' 'Am I strong enough?'

When I write the songs, I don't dictate how people should interpret them.

That's a dangerous combination, serious and rock 'n' roll. But yeah, I'm pretty serious. I've been at this a long time, and it takes a certain amount of seriousness.

I don't feel any great need to dress in funny-looking clothes and be recognized as a star, nor do I get that much satisfaction out of hanging around all the main clubs so people can see who I am.

I never try to create a different personality or anything like that. I'm not like David Bowie or somebody like that, who changes personas each year.

I'm the middle-class kid; it doesn't sound exciting, but a lot of my audience is middle-class kids.

I don't feel I have to be Jackson Browne. Still, I like to say something.

I don't make grandiose, prophetic statements in my songs.

Even in 1971, J. Geils was into the Stones. When I heard Geils, I realized that a lot of other people hearing them had never heard the Stones.

We don't want to categorize our music. Some people say you need a definite musical direction to give a group visibility.

I think if you're going to a concert and spending $15 for a ticket for you and your girlfriend, then you're going to buy a T-shirt, and you end up spending close to $100 a night, what with gas in the car and anything else to get you in the spirit of things, I just think that people deserve their money's worth.

When I was a kid, I was interested in folk music. But rock represented power, and I became the best rock guitarist in my school.

I tend to deal with things in a very serious manner.

Usually, when I'm having a good time, I don't think about it that much. I tend to become more reflective or introspective.

I find the idea of doing what you do over and over again to be incredibly boring.

Most of us, whether we like it or not, we grow up and start having a different view of what we've done and who we are and where we're going.

There are a lot of cases where I'm using, if not an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar more as a rhythm instrument. Rather than blasting away, I use it to create more of an acoustic feel.

But I don't let my bad feelings rule my life. I acknowledge them because I can't pretend they aren't there.

Don't Say No' was the first album I'd done that I felt completely comfortable with.

It would be easier to be more mysterious, but I try to be accessible.

It's very important for me to try to get to the people. I'm not shy. It's nice to give the fans a little extra, to let them inside.

Studio work is very methodical, while live concerts must be very spontaneous.

My music has been called heavy metal, but that's not an accurate description. I'd rather call it articulate rock because it expresses many feelings and emotions.

I just started exploring the guitar and seeing where it would take me.

My parents are proud of me now. However, when I first became involved with rock music, they were afraid.

I'm not a poet. So the writing process is a difficult one for me.

I don't like pictures of me showing my hair sticking up in back.

Seeing a young band, seeing that hunger and the raw spontaneity, is good for me. It keeps me young, so to speak.

I don't know if anyone necessarily looks at themselves and what they do as being terribly significant one way or another.

It certainly is a positive thing... having a trademark.

I used to be a big arena person. I thought more people equaled more intensity, but smaller places are a lot more intimate, I feel more connected with the audience.

I started as a guitarist and couldn't find a decent singer, so I started providing my own vocals.

For me, music is just one road. I dont have a specific pursuit; generally. I just try to be more aware of myself.

Life isn't that complicated on paper. It's made more complex by the day and age we live.

Heavy metal to me implies a relentless, pounding, hitting-people-over-the-head music. Trend setters tend to dismiss it as basic and simple, but all the time that little trends keep coming and going, the Bob Segers, Bruce Springsteens and the Billy Squiers keep staying.

I'm always happy when I'm outside working in the company of nature.