Rick Danko Quotations

I'm here in the mountains, in the foothills of the Catskills.

My first payback to society in life, was The Dolphin Project.

As time goes on we get closer to that American Dream of there being a pie cut up and shared. Usually greed and selfishness prevent that and there is always one bad apple in every barrel.

Country artists, I met a lot of them when I was five, six years old. I had an uncle who was a country and western singer and I met Lefty Frizzell when I was five or six years old in those shows that would come through Toronto from Nashville.

By doing something positive in this world, you're helping people and the future. We're all trying to help the world... make it a better place to live. We're actually still changing the world, aren't we?

Then, there was Greenpeace, I remember that when they first started out with the boats in the waters, and the guys in the boats between the whales and the boats that will hunting the whales with spear guns.

I grew up not far from where Motown was founded, maybe 300 miles from Detroit and I've always liked - I used to like the way they made records. I still do, I just haven't had a chance to hear as much. They used to entertain me.

I love to play; a stage is a safe place for me to be. It's not that way for most folks, but I'd be lost without it.

Getting older, I realize I've had a very fortunate life. I've had a budget that's allowed me to do just about any silly little thing the mind could conjure up, and I'm still alive and here.

You have to remember the band played from 1960 to 1965, every night. You get into a rut playing nightclubs every night, and you didn't want to run it into the ground.

I like a lot of bass players. I like a lot of tuba players too.

The Band is sounding real good. We've been doing some dates together and they've been going well.

When I was a kid a growing up in Ontario, Canada, Lake Erie was so polluted, I never thought it would ever, EVER be turned around where they could start cleaning it out in my lifetime!

Also a portion of my sales go directly to Greenpeace.

Paul Butterfield and I had a band together at one point.

When CD technology first came out, it was just so much waste.

When I used to play nightclubs, you had to play Top 40 or favorite oldies that maybe people could relate to.

The pressures, I don't really like to think about the pressures, I like to solve them, you know what I mean. I could sit here and complain about pressures but nobody wants to hear about pressures.

After convincing myself that was maybe you should at least help out your neighborhood, I really started to think about it later on in life.

I am using soybean based ink, which is recyclable.

When I was younger, I had big visions of changing the world.

I started working with Bob in 1965. We did go through a lot of changes from 65 to 74, a lot of changes. By 1974, everything had straightened itself out.

I saw Ronnie Hawkins play near my hometown, Port Dover, Ontario, and I saw him play there on New Year's Eve and the following spring I booked myself to be his opening act on maybe five shows, and he hired me after the first night.

You put a song on the record or on tape and you stop singing it. You just don't sit around and sing it anymore unless you're performing. That's kind of sad.

The Band was always famous for its retirements we'd go and play and get a little petty cash together, and then not see each other till it was time to fill our pockets up again.

Just this last year, I made the statement by hooking up with Greenpeace. By not only contributing money, but by contributing more my time.

Well, it's just always the same. It's the same arrangements. It's the same if I'm playing bass, if I'm playing guitar, if I'm playing piano.

Bob wrote the song during The Basement Tapes time period; we put it on Music From Big Pink. Richard did a great job singing it in falsetto.

It's hard for me to sit around and discuss what I do - I'm used to hearing other people talk about what I do - It makes me very uncomfortable.

Go with your first thoughts; they're usually your best thoughts. Pay attention, stick to your goals and follow those guidelines. It's all right there if you reach for it, unless you want to punch timeclocks and work for somebody. That's what we liked about America, the land of opportunity. All your dreams can come true.

He was a 'how' thinker, not an 'if' thinker.

God don't like complaints.