Three chords and the truth - that's what a country song is.

Trust me the only real way to understand 'Chic' is in highfalutin terms. Our chord progressions were based on European modal melodies. I made those early 'Chic' records to impress my jazz friends.

Well the country songs themselves are three-chord stories ballads which are mostly sad. If you are already feeling sorry for yourself when you listen to them they will take you to an even sadder place.

It was R.E.M. who showed other Eighties bands how to get away with ignoring the rules - they lived in some weird town nobody never heard of they didn't play power chords they probably couldn't even spell 'spandex.' All they had was songs.

Conversation may be compared to a lyre with seven chords - philosophy art poetry love scandal and the weather.

I don't write poetry and then strum some chords and then fit the words on top of the chords.

I came into music because I thought the presentation of poetry wasn't vibrant enough. So I merged improvised poetry with basic rock chords.

Country music is three chords and the truth.

I think there's nothing better than seeing a three-chord straight up rock 'n' roll band in your face with sweaty music and three minute good songs.

You just pick up a chord go twang and you're got music.

Motherhood is at its best when the tender chords of sympathy have been touched.

I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.

I spent many years trying to write a lot like Ben Folds or John Lennon or Rivers Cuomo. I think that's healthy when you're learning to write and seeing how chords fit together and how songs take shape.

I do remember actually learning chords to Beatles songs. I thought they were great songwriters.

When I was first learning songs I'd have a favorite song and I'd take the chords and twist them around. I'd learn the chords and then play them backward. That was my first experimenting with writing a song.

I don't understand why Europeans and South Americans can take more sophistication. Why is it that Americans need to hear their happiness major and their tragedy minor and as jazzy as they can handle is a seventh chord? Are they not experiencing complex emotions?

But we got up there and decided to stick to this mix of power chords and funk and that's where it really started for us. In having the courage to take that decision. To take a gamble not just with our music but our lives.

The real beauty of it - key to my life was playing key chords on a banjo. For somebody else it may be a golf club that mom and dad put in their hands or a baseball or ballet lessons. Real gift to give to me and put it in writing.

'Dallas' hit a chord back in the late Seventies and Eighties because it was the age of greed: here you have this unapologetic character who is mean and nasty and ruthless and does it all with an evil grin. I think people related to JR back then because we all have someone we know exactly like him. Everyone in the world knows a JR.