Mick Ralphs
Mick Ralphs
Michael Geoffrey "Mick" Ralphs is an English guitarist and songwriter, who was a founding member of rock bands Mott the Hoople and Bad Company...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth31 March 1944
best people
I've never had a plan - it was just to try and get with the people you like to play with, and try to do the best you can.
born england english people stay tend
English people are so boring, they tend to stay where they were born and never go anywhere... 'cause England isn't that big anyway.
ear enjoy exploring mean people played suppose
I suppose people wouldn't think I played the keyboard, but I enjoy exploring the keyboard. I mean I only play by ear like I do guitar.
chuck
One of my big inspirations was Chuck Berry, and his playing was always about the rhythm and the lyrics. So I've always been that way in my playing, really.
house imitates next realize scary whistling
The parrot's so funny. He imitates me and I don't even realize he's doing it. I'm walking around the house talking to myself and whistling and the next day he's said something I've said... it's scary you know?
basement happened liked musician pleased singer starving tune
When I did it, I was a starving musician in London in a basement flat, but a simple tune with the right singer or the right situation can become very well liked and accepted. I'm only too pleased to say it happened with that one.
bad company priority
Bad Company is not a priority in his life, and it's always been in my life. When it's not there, I haven't got a lot going for me.
bad chuck
This kid's excited because he's with Bad Company and I'm excited because I'm with Chuck Berrys' son.
downs life mellow qualified ups
I think that as you get older, you mellow out a lot more. Having been through the ups and downs in life, I feel more qualified to play the blues.
generally good music tend
Because I've always put them down, I generally tend to get music more than I do lyrics... when you get the two together, you've got a good song.
across berry chuck quite work
Chuck Berry just put fours across the shuffle. If you try it, it really works. It's quite amazing, you'd think it wouldn't work but it's great.
country sort
I'm not a country picker, really - I like a nice, beefy, raunchy sort of sound.
song writing might
That's what I find with any good song, you just have to let it happen. Out of about twenty songs you might write, one of any significance. It might be thirty or forty, but I just keep churning them out and churning them out in hope that one of them will stick.
guitar piano certain
Guitar is great for a certain thing, but a piano is so much more expansive.