Keith Moon remains one of the most iconic drummers of all time. His explosive drumming with The Who is still something of a marvel. No one has come close to matching his particular brand of rhythm. Moon passed away on September 7, 1978, but not before he left us with a number of off-the-wall quotes. Check out 15 of them, below.
[RELATED: Remember When: Keith Moon Rigged his Drum to Explode in 1967]
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1. “I told people I was a drummer before I even had a set, I was a mental drummer.”
2. “If you’re sitting around after a show and there’s something you don’t like, you just switch it off by throwing a bottle through the screen.”
3. “I like playing with friends. But my love is on the stage or theatrical drumming and not drum solos or session work. I’m not used to being told to play a certain way. I’m a lousy session musician.”
4. “You’d come offstage and still be buzzin. Then you’d go to a party and it’d get out of hand, get wild. Things get broken.”
5. “I’m still the best Keith Moon-style drummer in the world.”
6. “The hotel smashing is one way I get relief from the public image. I have no temper. I do it in a spirit of amusement rather than anger.”
7. “When you’ve got money and you do the kind of things I get up to, people laugh and say that you’re eccentric.”
8. “I’m banned everywhere. With my record I’m not surprised. That’s why I have to buy me own hotels.”
9. “I was a rust repairer and full-time survivor. I survived all the major earthquakes, and the Titanic, and several air crashes.”
10. “At heart I cannot accept that I am a well-known rock ‘n’ roll star and one of the greatest drummers in the world.”
11. “I love to see people laugh and I love it more if I can make them laugh.”
12. “They’re always saying I’m a capitalistic pig. I suppose I am. But … it’s good for my drumming.”
13. “I’ve always enjoyed myself. Unhappy periods for me last about twenty minutes.”
14. “To get your playing more forceful, hit the drums harder.”
15. “You have to treat everything – even if at that time it seems like a right bummer – as a good experience.”
(Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)
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