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Rock and roll's relatively new, in the sense of the Fifties, Sixties, right? They invented the first sort of rock stars, and they took it to excess, and then the excess became bitter, tormented. Then it became okay to succeed.

I think a lot of people came into rock n' roll to try to change the world. I came into rock n' roll to make music.

Any good music must be an innovation.

I don't think there's any such thing as rock n' roll anymore - it's an amalgamation of business interests.

Unfortunately, music devolved instead of evolved. The music business got into the hands of lawyers and accountants rather than the entrepreneurial creative people, and that's when the beginning of the end started. It's all based on money instead of art and creativity.

The music we made then was so amateurish, compared to the rest of mainstream pop or rock and roll. But what differentiated us from what everybody else was doing in the business was the fact that you could tell that these people came from different reference areas.

Rock became an incredible commercial success, people just became bored with serious music, and it was forgotten.

Rock n' roll unchained a nation and revolutionized radio and the record industry, not to mention the motion picture business.

I think my legacy should be that when I started in show business, there wasn't no such thing as rock n' roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti,' that's when rock really started rocking.

The Beatles changed music forever. They took rock n' roll from a medium that was about cars and girls and gave it context, interesting chord changes and true musicianship.