Keith Emerson quotes

Keith Emerson was a British musician and composer, renowned as a pioneer of progressive rock and the keyboardist of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. His innovative use of synthesizers and virtuosic performances helped redefine the possibilities of rock music. He is remembered for his technical brilliance and dramatic stage presence. Here are 29 of his quotes:

I consider everything I compose a gift. (Keith Emerson)
Find a good teacher, as I found for my sons. I feel the worst thing you can do is to try and teach your own children yourself, because there is a natural rebellion that occurs. View quote
Keith Emerson
I'm not a rich man, and Greg Lake is certainly not. I don't know how he can survive. I don't know how he can be that suicidal. But having said that, I'd love to be there to help Greg. View quote
Keith Emerson
I don't regard myself as a great classical or jazz pianist. I like country music, but I'm not a great player. I just like music. Drums 'n' bass is pretty exciting and I'd love to explore it. View quote
Keith Emerson
If you're a good parent, see the changes that are happening in your kids. View quote
Keith Emerson
You've got to keep things flying. View quote
Keith Emerson
I've gone through hell and back. View quote
Keith Emerson
We can all put weight on or lose weight. View quote
Keith Emerson
I don't care who I play to, as long as they enjoy listening to what I play. View quote
Keith Emerson
I remember that I used to mix with my friends who had brothers and sisters. I was an only child. View quote
Keith Emerson
I was always playing the Hammond Organ back to front even during the days of the Nice, going back to 1968. Really what I was doing there, was choosing notes at random and trying to make some sense of them, improvising back to front. (Keith Emerson)
Next year I'm going to be a guesting soloist with orchestras all over Europe, to start off with. View quote
Keith Emerson
If they want a photograph, then just take it. View quote
Keith Emerson
I'm proud of my kids, they are doing what they want to do. View quote
Keith Emerson
My sons are into German music, but they are into all kinds of music. View quote
Keith Emerson
I love my mother dearly, but it wouldn't be suitable for me to live with her all the time. View quote
Keith Emerson
The best thing about this band is I'm the leader! View quote
Keith Emerson
If we didn't do the tour, it would have been disastrous. View quote
Keith Emerson
At the Isle of Wight, the sound went out and kind of kept on going. And I wasn't... when I came off stage I was kind of unhappy about how we had played. But now, I listen back to those recordings and it's not bad. View quote
Keith Emerson
If it wasn't good, I wouldn't be going back out on tour. View quote
Keith Emerson
I've broken my nose, I've broken ribs. You name it. In fact, we just got back from South America, and I fell over a monitor speaker on the stage and almost ended up in the front row of the audience. I managed to sprain my wrist on that one but luckily nothing was broken. (Keith Emerson)
They were keen for me still to play the piano, which I was going to, but 45 minutes of piano would be extremely boring. I like a bit of light and shade. View quote
Keith Emerson
We manage to bounce ideas off one another. Every band fights, but at the end of the day, we're very positive about the way we fight. At least we come out with a result. View quote
Keith Emerson
There's a clip where he had someone miming me running around from keyboard to keyboard. Oh dear, I am sure a lot of people didn't know what he was going on about. View quote
Keith Emerson
I've never written a book before. View quote
Keith Emerson

Keith Emerson

Keith Emerson - Image
Photo: Mari Kawaguchi, CC BY-SA 3.0
Occupation: British Musician
Born: November 2, 1944
Died: March 11, 2016
Quotes count: 29