There are so many artists who get to my age that get comfortable and just stick in a groove, and I really don’t want to do that. – Paul Weller
The Zombies were really unique – they had elements of jazz and classical music in their songs and songwriting. They had a very, very different sound compared to a lot of their contemporaries at the time. – Paul Weller
I really enjoy playing America. I like the audiences there. It’s the home of a lot of music I grew up with. – Paul Weller
If you’re making music, you must want to turn other people on to it, whether you’re number one in the charts or number 60. I don’t know, that’s a commercial thing, but just the fact that other people like you… there’s no point in making music, otherwise. Otherwise, you might as well make it in your bedroom and leave it there. – Paul Weller
I was always taught as a kid that if there’s anything you want in life, you’ve got to work towards it. I guess that sort of stayed with me, really. But also, for me, from the time I was, like, 10 years old, all I ever wanted to do was be in a band and make music. – Paul Weller
‘Ageism,’ or whatever you want to call it, is a very English phenomenon. You don’t get it too much in many other cultures. And no one says it about authors or poets or filmmakers. ‘Oh, they’re too old to make films or write books.’ – Paul Weller
The Jam were a good band, however I feel that the Style Council were better. A lot of people I know will disagree with me. Some things we did with The Style Council were misinterpreted or over their heads. – Paul Weller
I’m fine with being thought of as a guitar player, and if I can get any recognition or respect for doing that, that’s a pretty good thing for me. – Paul Weller
I was such a massive fan of all the ’60s pop bands, but if I had to single out one band, it would definitely be The Beatles. – Paul Weller
Coming from a little suburban town, I wasn’t a hip city kid. I was quite the opposite, really. Songs like ‘Saturday’s Kids’ rang a bell for kids all over the country. That song was about the kids I grew up with. – Paul Weller
I’ve always liked my clothes, even before I could properly afford them. Clothes for me were never a cloak, a cover. They were how I chose to express myself. – Paul Weller
When I got into the Beatles, I must have only been about six or seven but old enough to take notice. We used to have an old radiogram which, for readers of a certain age, was like a big cabinet thing with a record player inside it. – Paul Weller
I want to hear as much music as I possibly can before I leave this mortal coil but it’s impossible to hear it all because there’s so much of it. – Paul Weller
I still love playing music. It was all I ever wanted to do, and I got the chance to do it. – Paul Weller
I could write songs about politics, but I’m conscious of not writing songs that sound the same as the ones I wrote 30 years ago. – Paul Weller
You have to keep challenging yourself. I’ve always tried to do that, and I’m not saying I’ve always been successful. Maybe I’ve rewritten the same song; it’s inevitable, but I’ve always been mindful of taking the writing somewhere else. You can’t stick in your little comfort zone. – Paul Weller
I get labelled as just being about one thing, but there’s lots of layers to what I do. It’s just lazy journalism, but people start to accept it. If people spent an hour in my car driving around London and listening to the stuff I listen to, they’d hear some interesting stuff. – Paul Weller
Music is the most natural thing in the world. When we go to a gig and we all like it and we share that experience, it’s the same sense of communion as a sacred rite in Borneo or wherever it may be; it just gets dressed up different. Its good for the soul. – Paul Weller
No man should have cowboys boots in his wardrobe. That’s fair enough, isn’t it? Unless you’re a cowboy, of course. – Paul Weller
There was a time in my 40s where I thought, oh, it’s all over – not just work, but I’m never going to feel young again, I’m always going to feel like I know what’s going to happen, I’ll know what to expect. Looking back I don’t know if that was a midlife crisis, I don’t know – but I don’t feel that now. There’s possibilities. It gets better. – Paul Weller
When I told my mum I was going to play my first gig when I was 14, she couldn’t believe it, cause I was painfully shy at that time. But I just done it, put my head down and got through it. And I suppose there’s still a little bit of that, even though it’s many years later and I’ve been doing it for a long time. – Paul Weller
I don’t think about what I can’t do or what I shouldn’t be doing. I just think there are endless possibilities musically, really. And I’m very, very open to experimenting with different people and trying to find different methods of writing and making music. – Paul Weller
Most people my age, their musical life ended in the ’80s. They stick with what they know. But my tastes are much broader. And I don’t want to stop learning. – Paul Weller
The only time I ever really got into rap was back in the early ’90s, and bands like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Gang Starr. Musically, they were really interesting. But when hip-hop acts start sampling Sting or Phil Collins, then I just don’t get it at all. – Paul Weller
We can’t stop a baby in Africa from starving to death… but we can afford enough technology and weaponry to blow the world up a million times over. – Paul Weller
