Dick Dale Quotes

I've been called 'the father of loud.'

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

Gene Krupa was my big hero, and I used to play on my mother's flour cans and sugar cans with the kitchen knives, listening to the big bands on my dad's records. Gene Krupa and Harry James.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

People just loved the sound because I kept it simple.

When I come onstage, I'm exploding.

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

I thought of Gene Krupa's drumming, his staccato drumming. I went and put 'Misirlou' to that rhythm.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

I smashed my tailbone and couldn't sit for five years, and I broke my clavicle because I thought I was a great surfer, and of course, I could be a great snowboarder, too. Man, was I wiped out!

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.

Music is nothing but a door opener to meet families and their children and the elderly.

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

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 don't surf no more.

As a little kid I had a girlfriend, and her boyfriend used to beat me up, so then I used to sing these songs, and that's what it's all about. Country music is all about your heart and your people and things like that.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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!'

I enjoy living like a hermit, but I cannot live like a hermit.

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

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

I actually first picked up an ukulele before I picked up a guitar.

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

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

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.

With every problem comes a gift in hand.

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

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.

I always wanted a guitar. I always wanted to be a cowboy singer because I also listened to Hank Williams, and he would always sing these neat romantic songs.

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