Dick Dale Quotes & Sayings

I don't claim to be a musician, I didn't go to Julliard. — Dick Dale

I learned everything by ear and played all the different instruments. So then I was able to find a guitar. That was, like, in the seventh grade. And then I didn't know how to put my fingers on all the different strings, so I had to figure out how to do it upside down and backwards, and I still play that way today. — Dick Dale

I make my guitar scream with pain or pleasure or sensuality. It makes people move their feet and shake their bodies. That's what music does. — Dick Dale

Every time I went into the studio some engineer tried to impress me with how they're going to capture my sound with all kinds of tricks. But they limited the sound and never allowed me to play how I felt. — Dick Dale

I met Leo Fender, who is the guru of all amplifiers, and he gave me a Stratocaster. He became a second father to me. — Dick Dale

I do not play to musicians. I play to the people. — Dick Dale

Every song is like a painting. — Dick Dale

The Stratocaster is like the Rolls-Royce. It can never be surpassed. — Dick Dale

Springsteen - he's the Lord God. — Dick Dale

My aunt played the piano and I used to sit and listen to it. — Dick Dale

When I was 18 at the Santa Ana River Jetty is where I put my first board in the water that I ever got from Joe Quigg. I was just riding the whitewater in, and I was just in heaven. — Dick Dale

I always felt people should live with animals. — Dick Dale

I'll never die. I'll just explode, right there before your eyes, onstage. — Dick Dale

I don't play pyrotechnic scales. I play about frustration, patience, anger. Music is an extension of my soul. — Dick Dale

The ultimate guitar players can play every scale in the book. — Dick Dale

I've never followed a list in my life, and that's probably what has created so much nervous energy in my body. — Dick Dale

I refuse to bring my son up in a world corrupt as it is now. — Dick Dale

I know what it's like to wash my clothes in a Chevron station. — Dick Dale

When I come onstage, I'm exploding. — Dick Dale

Nothing could capture the sound of Dick Dale - he was too loud. — Dick Dale

You know what the doctors call me? 'The Cancer Warrior.' — Dick Dale

I almost had to have my leg amputated because of an infection. — Dick Dale

I make jokes because humor is the greatest healing factor that there is. — Dick Dale

The Musicians Hall of Fame is chosen by thousands of your peers. So it's the real thing. — Dick Dale

People ask about love. Real love. I was never in love; the people around me didn't love me. They were just along for the ride. — Dick Dale

I live like in the days of Daniel Boone, hauling water by hand. I used to have two Rolls-Royces. Now I got one. It's got four flat tires; the trunk is open, and a rat lives inside it. — Dick Dale

I answer number one to myself, because I know myself. I answer to my fans, because they know me. My mother knows me and God knows me, and that's where it's at. — Dick Dale

What I play now isn't surf music. It's too powerful. I used to go through paper bags; now I go through brick walls. I play hard. — Dick Dale

Every time I do an album, I say, 'That's the last one.' — Dick Dale

Dick Dale don't surf no more. — Dick Dale

I used to be a mean maniac. Someone once threw a firecracker at a show and I jumped off the side of the stage and whacked 'em on the side of the head. — Dick Dale

You shouldn't even be writing this story if you haven't heard me play live. You can't write with the passion you receive until you see a Dick Dale concert. — Dick Dale

You can't eat fish. It's 6,000 parts DDT per million all over the world, not counting radiation. — Dick Dale

Drums were my first instrument. — Dick Dale

I like to say, 'I hit every type of music in a show, and I play the people, not the instruments.' — Dick Dale

I have all the rhythm in my left hand, and I use the rhythms that Gene Krupa did on his drums. — Dick Dale

I may play the same songs night to night, but I never play them the same way. — Dick Dale

I try to read the audience, see what they're in the mood for. — Dick Dale

Guitar Player Magazine says Dick Dale is the father of Heavy Metal, blowing up 48 amplifiers, creating the first power amplifier. — Dick Dale

I'd rather be a Jack-of-all-trades than master of one. If I became an icon, where my whole life was music, I would probably have become a vegetable. I wouldn't be able to have all these talents I have today and be an interesting 'character.' — Dick Dale

I wanted to put a sheet in explaining what all the songs are about, but they didn't do it. — Dick Dale

In the Shao Lin temple, they never allow you to touch the skin of a drum until you can tongue what you're going to play. — Dick Dale

If I ever wrote a book, people would never believe it. — Dick Dale

My father never put me on his lap and said he loved me. — Dick Dale

I don't live with the 'right' people. I don't want to. I don't want to live with the rich in Beverly Hills or walk the streets of Hollywood. I want to go to K-mart and get good deals. — Dick Dale

I grew a love for helpless, defenseless things. People would give me lions and jaguars. I had cheetahs, monkeys. — Dick Dale

I don't like to use the word 'fans;' I call them 'Dick Dale music lovers.' — Dick Dale

I enjoy living like a hermit, but I cannot live like a hermit. — Dick Dale

Kids don't see me as an oldies person when I go out on stage. They see me as an energy force. — Dick Dale

My uncle gave me a trumpet, but I loved the Louis Armstrong sound and the Harry James sound and I played by ear and I played always soulful or very direct from the gut. — Dick Dale

That's what my music does for me. It makes people happy. When I play, I thank the Lord I've never seen someone walk away from a Dick Dale dance not having a good time. That's what it's all about. — Dick Dale

I can play every instrument there is, every horn, I've played all the saxes and trumpets and everything and keyboards. — Dick Dale

I've got holes in my guitar. — Dick Dale

I'm dedicated to touring the rest of my life. — Dick Dale

People who have witnessed all the years of me playing, they bring their kids and say, 'I used to see this guy when I was fourteen!' — Dick Dale

I'm going to make people happy. I'm going to make them forget about their cancer. I'm going to make them forget about their diabetes. — Dick Dale

I'm not one of these guys who is dedicated to playing or performing - that's just one facet of my life. — Dick Dale

As I'd go out learning to surf, I'd feel the power of waves coming over my body. It's like you're with God. — Dick Dale

I actually first picked up an ukulele before I picked up a guitar. — Dick Dale

For 20 years I've been screaming at these guitar companies, saying, 'It's abnormal to put your arm around an acoustic guitar that is about 6 to 8 inches deep.' Your arm reaches over, and you start to strum, and then all of a sudden you get a charley horse in your back. The older you get, the greater the charley horse. — Dick Dale

Surfers were the ones who named all my songs. They'd yell out the names, and we just kept 'em. — Dick Dale

Earthlings are confused, insecure. And some Earthlings have no heritage: that's what leads them to kill each other and rob 7-11 stores. — Dick Dale

My philosophy is the thicker the wood the thicker the sound, the bigger the string the bigger the sound. My smallest string is a 14 gauge. — Dick Dale

My music is more native than intricate or technical. — Dick Dale

Little Richard, he'd say, 'Oh Dick Dale! You have luscious lips!' — Dick Dale

With every problem comes a gift in hand. — Dick Dale

I enjoyed it (Dr.Ducks Ax Wax) .. in fact I'm all out ... — Dick Dale

Jimi was a good guy 'til he got into drugs. That's the way it is. I just tell it like it is. — Dick Dale

You know, music is sex. It's a sensual driving mode that affects people if it's played a certain way. — Dick Dale

People just loved the sound because I kept it simple. — Dick Dale

Whatever you do, don't take shortcuts. It's great advice to take and live by. — Dick Dale

I used to surf up in Ventura County at Silver Strand; plus, I've played up there many times. — Dick Dale

When my guitar was growling, playing surf beat, you could hear it; you could feel it. — Dick Dale

I called it Rockabilly 'cause I was rocking the strums, which you're not supposed to do. — Dick Dale

My mind never left 20, because once it does, that's when you start to die. — Dick Dale

I've been called 'the father of loud.' — Dick Dale

Hendrix was the bass player for Little Richard. We were both left-handed, but we would use a right-handed guitar held upside down and backwards. He developed my slides and my riffs. In fact he used to say, and this is documented, 'I patterned my style after Dick Dale.' — Dick Dale

I've been performing since 1955. I'm going to have to keep performing till I die because I'm not going to die in some rocking chair with a big ol' beer belly. — Dick Dale

When I started surfing, you'd hear this neat rumbling sound when you took off and go for the drop, and when the wave is lipping up over the top of you, it makes this hissing sound. — Dick Dale

If you ask me what I'd rather be doing, well, I'd rather be home in California, watching TV, polishing my tools and working around the ranch. — Dick Dale

Surf music is actually just the sound of the waves played on a guitar: that wet, splashy sound. — Dick Dale

My philosophy is that on a scale of 1 to 10, I will go to 15. No matter what! — Dick Dale

There's a saying. If you want someone to love you forever, buy a dog, feed it and keep it around. — Dick Dale

When I first played the guitar without plugging it into an amplifier, the people at Fender were blown away. They couldn't believe the sound. I said, 'See, gentlemen, the world is no longer flat.' — Dick Dale

Buddy Rich was one of the most incredible technicians in the world, on this planet, but the only people he could really impress, who knew what he was doing was another musician or another drummer. — Dick Dale

My son now is 22 months old, he's been playing since he was 12 months old and he gets standing ovations on the drums. He's been with us since he was 10 weeks old, he's been on the drums. He's got blisters on his fingers before he can even talk. — Dick Dale

I've never taken a lesson in my life, and I can play every instrument there is. I play by ear, but I can fool anybody into thinking I went to some conservatory of music. — Dick Dale

I surfed Dana Point, San Clemente, and of course Huntington Beach. Every morning, you could find me at the hot water pipe. — Dick Dale

Surf music is played through a Showman amp with a Stratocaster guitar. — Dick Dale

I'm a perfectionist. I'm not going to cheat the people. — Dick Dale

Some guys record an album with songs that are filler. I recorded this album like it was my last. — Dick Dale

I was reading a magazine when I was a little kid, probably about twelve years old, and an ad said that if you sell so many jars of Noxzema skin cream, we'll sell you a ukulele. So I went out and banged on doors in the snow in Quincy, Massachusetts, where I was raised, and I sold the skin cream. — Dick Dale

I told them if were going to do it were going to do it right, I'm not leaving 'til it's done. My wife, child and I slept in the studio. We cut these raw. — Dick Dale

I'll just tell you the way it is. You ask me what time it is and I'm gonna tell you how to build a clock. — Dick Dale

Music is an attitude. It's a sensation to the average person, to the human being. And keep it simple, stupid. That's always been my theory. — Dick Dale

I'm constantly being influenced by the soul that's directly in front of me. — Dick Dale

The kids called me King of the Surf Guitar. I surfed sunup to sundown. — Dick Dale

When I start playing I'm just a rollercoaster of sound. I don't know what's coming next, I never do, and I sit and sign and talk to the people afterwards. — Dick Dale

When I played with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings in Vegas, the guys used to go, 'Dick, cut it out, man! You're moving around too much on this stage. You're making us look bad!' — Dick Dale

When I play, I don't cheat. I played for 490,000 in Berlin, and I'll play just as hard for 100. — Dick Dale