There was one thing Beethoven didn't do. When one of his string quartets was played, you can believe the second violin wasn't improvising.

In Vienna every place Beethoven looked at, it's marked by something.

My thing is, once you start to put a backbeat on your music or something that has a machine in it, you have popularity, but you lose the flexibility. And you lose a richness.

I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play.

The first time I ever played the trumpet in public, I played the Marine Hymn. I sounded terrible.

My older brother and myself always played together in bands, but we never knew we would be professional musicians.