I think the good thing about the Internet is to give something away and to sell something else. Get a business model like that because the old brick and mortar record stores are falling apart, and the big record companies are collapsing under their own weight.

Roger McGuinn

He blew his mind out in a caaaar.

Roger McGuinn

mind

Scotty Moore plays one of the first really amazing riffs in rock history on Heartbreak Hotel with Elvis Presley ... it was dangerous, it scared everybodys parents, which was part of the attraction then - as it still is now... it totally blindsided me and made me want to get a guitar and do that.

Roger McGuinn

rocks guitar music

Now, you can just get a laptop, get some software, put a microphone on it and make a record. You have to know how to do it. It does help if you've had 35 or 40 years of experience in the studio. But, it still levels the playing field so artists can record their own stuff.

Roger McGuinn

laptops artist years

If there's anyone in space, what they'll learn about the human race will be listening to us talking on the car phone.

Roger McGuinn

phones space race

Man has tried his suicide with bigotry and hate, but in the end he'll kill himself with nothing but his waste.

Roger McGuinn

hate suicide peace

How many years will you crawl through this castle, so satisfied and still wanting more?

Roger McGuinn

castles philosophy years

Well, I guess that early 12 string. The first Martin I bought. I bought it around 1957 with money I earned as a janitor assistant. I bought brand new. I still have that.

Roger McGuinn

strings assistants firsts

Im not attracted to expensive things.

Roger McGuinn

expensive

Leadbelly's guitar is in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Roger McGuinn

rock-n-roll rocks guitar

But in my imagination this whole thing developed and I started mixing up old folk songs with the Beatles beat and taking them down to Greenwich Village and playing them for the people there.

Roger McGuinn

imagination song people

I don't really collect guitars.

Roger McGuinn

guitar

Once I've written a song, I sometimes refine them.

Roger McGuinn

written song sometimes

The first 12-string guitar I bought was probably around 1957.

Roger McGuinn

strings guitar firsts

I play a couple basic folks songs and break them down. I did that on a six string. I can't recall all the songs on it. There's some finger picking on it.

Roger McGuinn

couple play song

... Andres Segovia literally created the genre of classical guitar, which hadn't existed before around 1910. There was flamenco, which he borrowed from, but he actually arranged the works of Mozart and other classical composers for guitar, something that had never been done before ... Segovias' style is not slick or contrived, but it's still very clean and his timing is impeccable ... it's got a feeling of casual elegance, as if he's sitting around the house in Spain with a jug of wine, just playing from the heart.

Roger McGuinn

music wine heart

I'm happy with the Byrds as a good memory.

Roger McGuinn

good-memory memory good happy

That's one of the things I like best about folk music is the beautiful melodies - and the harmonies - that exist in it. And of course, some of the stories, the story songs.

Roger McGuinn

story best music beautiful

One of my favorite albums is Bob Gibson and Bob Camp, 'At the Gate of Horn.' It was a really dynamic album, almost like The Beatles, and way before its time... around 1960 or so.

Roger McGuinn

gate like time way

I was raised a Roman Catholic and had to go to the eight o'clock Mass every morning and have communion and wear a tie, kind of like a restricted life style. Then in the '60s, we got wild and let it go and started looking in other places to see where God really was, and I came back to the Christian thing.

Roger McGuinn

style god morning life

I've got an electric little motorcycle that I go to the supermarket with every day, and it's powered by the solar panels, so it's really got a zero carbon footprint.

Roger McGuinn

every-day day go motorcycle