“I can't play [guitar] like Pete Townshend. The flip side of that is that Pete Townshend could probably never have played like me.”

—  Kurt Cobain

As quoted in Fender Frontline Magazine (Fall 1994).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I can't play [guitar] like Pete Townshend. The flip side of that is that Pete Townshend could probably never have playe…" by Kurt Cobain?
Kurt Cobain photo
Kurt Cobain 158
American musician and artist 1967–1994

Related quotes

Daniel Johns photo

“This guy, he just taught me chords and stuff. And after a year, I thought, I can't be bothered having lessons. So I just decided to figure out my own stuff. I never wanted to play all those fast solos. I just thought, I'll be like Pete Townshend of The Who. I'll do what he does and play powerful chords and stuff.”

Daniel Johns (1979) Australian musician

On how he learnt Guitar, Guitar School magazine, "Rock n' Roll high school" February 1996.
Interviews

Camille Paglia photo

“He was a revealing symbol. He called himself passive-aggressive. There was self-pity, whining. There was a diminishment, a diminution. He was sitting there in his sweater, hunched over his guitar, looking like a little lost boy. Compare that with the great figures of my generation: Jimi Hendrix. Pete Townshend. Keith Richards.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

On Kurt Cobain
Playboy interview (May 1995)

Patrick Stump photo

“I don't know, we played a show for like, ten kids, but those ten kids were just insane. It's really quantity, not quality, and that's what I really -- (Pete cuts him off) Pete: It's quality, not quantity. You said it backwards. I don't want you to look like a dumbass… on film.”

Patrick Stump (1984) American musician

My Heart Will Always be the B-Side to My Tongue DVD

Joe Satriani photo

“I can embarrass myself very easily on guitar. It's funny because people say to me I can play anything; I'm God on the guitar. But I could make a big list of everything I can't play... I'm grateful that people don't notice that.”

Joe Satriani (1956) American guitar player

As quoted in BAM Magazine (6 April 1990).

John Lennon photo

“I used to be coy about it, like me guitar playing. But if there's such a thing as genius — I am one.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

John Lennon interview with Rolling Stone magazine (December 1970)
Context: When I was about twelve, I used to think I must be a genius, but nobody's noticed. Either I'm a genius or I'm mad, which is it? "No," I said, "I can't be mad because nobody's put me away; therefore I'm a genius." Genius is a form of madness and we're all that way. But I used to be coy about it, like me guitar playing. But if there's such a thing as genius — I am one. And if there isn't, I don't care.

P. J. O'Rourke photo

“It's hard to come back from the Balkans and not sound like a Pete Seeger song.”

P. J. O'Rourke (1947) American journalist

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Joe Satriani photo

“I assume most guitar players are like me. They're playing, having fun; then they get a magazine in the mail that says "Shred Is Dead" and they say, "What the Hell?"”

Joe Satriani (1956) American guitar player

They throw it away and keep on playing.
As quoted in "Shred on Arrival" in Guitar World (November 1993).

Nancy Wilson photo

“A lot of women play guitar very respectfully, and they play with the guitar; they don't play it—they play with it.”

Nancy Wilson (1954) American rock musician, member of Heart

On female guitarists, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8EKTGlQp-c, 2016

Eddie Van Halen photo

“I don't like doing interviews, I don't like doing what I'm doing right now. I'd rather be at home playing my guitar.”

Eddie Van Halen (1955) Dutch-American rock musician

Source: Talking with Kurt Loder on MTV's Famous Last Words show circa 1991.

“You don't ever get a chance to play what you really do; and if you do, you notice that you can't play, because you haven't been. And often I'd be asked to play like somebody else, like Joe Sample. I'd say, "I can't play like him. He's an original." I'd be asked to try and the producers would love it, but I'd feel rotten. Then one time I ran into Joe and he told me, "Man, I'm tired of people asking me to play like you."”

Clare Fischer (1928–2012) American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader

My jaw dropped. Then I found out this is a common practice.
On his years in the studio, playing on films, TV shows and jingles, as quoted in "He Arranges, Composes, Performs: Fischer, A Renaissance Man Of Music" http://articles.latimes.com/1987-05-14/entertainment/ca-8949_1_clare-fischer

Related topics