Top 22 Quotes by Steve Winwood

You would probably think that rock music is an urban phenomena, but the main reason for doing it in '68 was so that we could play music very loud any time of the day or night without getting complaints from the neighbours.

I got thrown out of music school for even listening to Fats Domino and Ray Charles. I was asked, 'What kind of music do you like to listen to?' and I said, 'Well, I do like Paul Hindemith and Igor Stravinsky but I also like Fats Domino and Ray Charles,' and they literally said, 'Either forget about that or leave.'

In some respects I'm quite easily led, so I have to make sure I've got my own space, and that I feel comfortable in my working environment. It's very important for me to work with the right collaborators, as I can easily get led into a corner where I'm not comfortable.

It's an often-asked question, 'Why did all these spotty white English boys suddenly start playing blues in the '60s?' It was recognized as this kind of vibrant music and when I first started playing in a blues band I just wanted to bring it to a wider public who hadn't really heard it.

Here we were supposedly changing the world for the better in the Sixties, but as we get 40 years further down the line, we realise that some of those changes such as the drugs probably weren't all that great or sensible. It was all about social experiments.

Don't buy this 'believe in yourself' rubbish. Why do they keep telling youngsters that? There's no point believing in yourself if you don't know what you're doing. Once you've got a vision of what you want to do, by all means stick to that passionately and doggedly. Believe in your ideas. It's not quite the same thing.