Ry Cooder

Uncle Dave Macon was a great balladeer and banjo player from the early part of the 19th century... He would take a social problem or something that he was looking at and make up a clever little song about it, you know, in a language everyone understood, a man of the people.

Buena Vista Social Club' is a great song and a difficult tune to play.

The Delmore Brothers is hit music - very, very popular - and it still retains that rural flavor and simplicity. I always think of it as family music, really, because families sang it.

I didn't come from a very rigid background, where there's a clan or a tribe or a religion.

I've tended to look at my albums as research and development. I was just trying to get someplace new on each one.

It's crazy to make records nobody buys. It's just a waste of time.

The '50s was the golden age of music all over the world for some crazy, 'X-File'-like reason I can't quite understand.

To me, the Internet is a big scam.

Who does this, at age 71, try to put a tour together from scratch? I have to say it's scary at times. But I like a challenge 'cause it keeps you on your toes.

I got a reputation for being 'eclectic' or some damn thing like that, but to me, the different kinds of music I play are all the same stuff - good time music - and it is the only stuff I can do.

I'm used to music as a tool, taking the various elements and then making something completely new out of them. And writing film music is the perfect opportunity to do that, because you can look at the film and then just let your imagination soar.

Music is all starting to sound alike in the modern era. Afro-pop sounds exactly like L.A. pop - there's no difference, no ambience, no real resonance.