Malfunctioning synth samples: click to download

I look at Paul Simon in my head [when I write] and go, ‘Paul, is this any good?

The music industry is like football - doing keepy-ups. You just have to believe in it, and wake up and find the reason every day

We’ve never written a song and thought, ‘That sounds pretty good but it’s not us.’ We’ve just thought 'that it doesn’t sound very us' and then put it in anyway

I’m stuck in my ways. We did a count and it must have been thousands of gigs, and the same guitar for all of those gigs

I was definitely that weird kid at school who was listening to the Allman Brothers and Pink Floyd when all my mates were playing football. I wanted to learn, I wanted to play Roundabout by Yes, or an Albert King song

The time when I was listening to Steve Vai and all those other guys and try to do their solos, I’d watch Eric Clapton do this solo on Further On Up The Road. It’s just that one note he keeps playing over and over, and it’s great, just ‘cos the feel is there

That’s how I got good: working out my demons through my instrument

To really get inside the mind of a player like Mondesir, one has to dismantle the perception that he is exclusively a jazz drummer

There are guys who have put the hours in and can play incredible things regarding their physicality, but I’m not about that, I’m really more about composing on the spot

I had to tell 500 bikers that the concert had been cancelled and there were no refunds

Being a guitarist is about more than just technical proficiency.

The band can be completely brutal at times. ‘Listen to this, guys, this is the best riff that I’ve ever written – probably anyone has ever written.’ You’ll play it, and they don’t so much tell you that it’s rubbish but you’ll just get that look

Jeff was a no-bulls**t guy when it came to groove. He would let you know if it wasn’t happening, and he would get some of the best shit out of me

We found five unearthed things that we went back and fixed and rewrote and put back together again. I was playing with my 20-year-old self…

Toto in 1984

There’s so many cats better than me. This is not a competition. I’m not looking for a stroke

I really love not having a pedalboard on stage any more. I don’t have to think about tap-dancing all over it to change tones and effects

I honestly do believe the key to a good performance is having fun and interacting with your audience

A lot of people think that I formed Fleetwood Mac back then, they don’t realise that it wasn’t me.

I can’t confess that I have my original snare drum that I have been playing for 40 years. I don’t tend to hang onto things like that. I remember back in the day when we didn’t have any money, I would hang onto things

The black control panel has a slightly different textured finish, with more visible graphics and ivory chicken head knobs, which don’t quite match the lettering - a very tiny annoyance that could easily be tweaked with a different shade of paint

People who worry about their belt buckles scratching the guitars, to me it’s just crazy; if I can’t play it I don’t want it

Mesa sculpted and refined these core tone elements, adding a massive power supply for super-fast response

Virtuosic yet deeply melodic and widely imitated, Johnson went on to introduce an abundance of distinctive licks to the lexicon of electric guitar

I love the fact that Jeff doesn’t use a pick, because it’s amazing. I sometimes wish that he would, 15 per cent of the time

Originally, when the explosion of great guitarists happened, I think there was more of an adherence to serving the song

What’s most important to me is whether the pedal destroys my direct tone. Because at that point it’s useless to me

When you’re writing about goblins and rainbows, there aren’t going to be too many disco beats, are there?

I would routinely get beaten by a tap dancing banjo player with a dancing dog.

Steve in the studio with EVH

It’s easy to be nervous at these kinds of things, so it’s great to choose music that you know you can play really well.

Reliable, flexible, intuitive and sonically very transparent.

All in all this mic works almost boringly well

I visited James at the studio and he was thinking, ‘What have I got myself into?’

It’s hard to come up with an original shape. That’s why the electric guitar, in 70 years, hasn’t changed that much

Whenever I get feedback, it’s always like, ‘Man, that neck!’ It just feels amazing

This circuit they designed is completely silent, but still has that vintage feel

That sorta snappy, funky sound comes from that longer scale length

I was immediately aware of the fact that this was probably one of the most exciting synthesizers of recent years.

I’ve been through every fear phase, from minimalistic to hot-rodded Fenders, to doing a whole album on a Marshall amp the size of a radio

Toto in 1982

About eight years ago, a crowd surfer fell into my mic stand and the mic flew into my face and broke one of my front teeth

We don’t bother using pedals any more; it’s easier not to print the guitar with anything on

We filmed a playthrough video in New York the other day, just the two of us without the band, and it blew me away when I heard how f**kin’ tight we were

We’ve been guilty over the last few years and albums of taking it all too seriously, not experimenting and putting in boundaries of what we should and should not sound like

There were a lot of people trying to change who we were, giving their opinions when they weren’t even qualified to do so. If we had listened to them, we probably wouldn’t be sat here today!

I get a lot of guys saying, ‘Oh you should have a heavier guitar sound because you’re supposed to be a stoner-rock band. Why aren’t you using like 15 amps and 19 Orange cabs and speakers?’

When you’re playing music, especially if you’re trying to be spontaneous, it’s very much a conversation

I just use the same thing I’ve always used, the old Twin Reverbs and the old Plexi Marshalls