Musician

That's what I wanted to do was play music.

As soon as I understood what was going on in San Francisco, which was in 1965 and '66, I immediately left Chicago where I was working in a nightclub that was being shaken down by the mafia and the police for payments. I mean, it was a real thug world.

For guitar players especially, blues is the foundation of rock and roll. You take country music and rock and roll and jazz and you mix it together, and that's my basic makeup.

In 1956, I began playing in a band with Boz Scaggs.

When I was a kid, I never thought I would ever be able to make records and never really thought seriously about a musical career because a musical career was being Fabian or Frankie Avalon or something. It didn't make any sense. There wasn't any possibility to get into that world.

Basically, as everybody that has had a taste of the record business knows, they are gangsters and crooks.

The Joker,' I made the album in 17 days and it was my last shot.

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

It'd be really great to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame mature. It's a good facility there in Cleveland. I like the museum a lot.

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.

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.

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.

Rock 'n' roll guitar came from blues guitar. It was the blues guys who first turned the amp up and started whacking on the Stratocaster and a Les Paul. It wasn't the country guys and it wasn't the white guys; it was the Blues guys. That's where the real fire is in all of this rock and roll music.

I have my own studio. I'm in it all the time.

I can walk into Tower Records, go get my box set, take out my Steve Miller credit card, and the clerk will look at me and go, 'Thanks, next.'

In some states, the population is pretty low and if 5,000 kids vote, they could completely change the political atmosphere.

Is there one blues guy who was the most sophisticated and influential, like Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong in jazz? Was it Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Robert Johnson, or all of them? I think you have to pick all of them.

We sold 1.5 million copies of the 'Abracadabra' album and 26,000 copies of 'Italian X-Rays.'

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

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