Ian Astbury Quotes

There have been times in my life where I was asked to do things and I didn't feel comfortable with it.

The days are usually filled with nonsense and every now and again somebody flies by the circus to party on your dime.

I wasn't pursuing a musical career or anything. It just happened and then it was there.

I think hip-hop has more to do with rock and roll. Kanye West is, in many ways, a rock artist.

I always played soccer in Adidas, but I always wore Nikes. I love street sportswear.

The idea of being icons, I think it's great when you're 24. It's fantastic.

I write all the time. The wonderful thing about having a cell phone is that if I get an idea, I knock it out and it's in my phone and I can transfer it to my computer and go into the studio and bring it up.

I have no desire to be a lead actor or anything. I was offered things and occasionally something comes along, but for the most part I'm pretty much, "You've got to be joking, right?"

I didn't join a band. I didn't start a band. I got asked to do it. It kinda happened by accident.

I'm much more interested in Mike Tyson than I am in Morrissey.

You get paid and you get venerated and worshipped for pretending to be somebody else.

Hollywood has this incredible ability to make a lot of noise.

I like the idea of getting to dress up, like to do a Barry Lyndon or something about the Napoleonic period, the grand army retreating from Moscow. I understand that there's a craft to acting and a lot of people work hard at it. I just know that music is my first love. I love music, I love film, and I love clothes.

Kanye West talks about being Axl Rose, being Kurt Cobain, being Jim Morrison. Adam Levine is selling acne ointment to teenagers.

It's not about mainstream global domination. I make clothes that I can't find. I made a few pieces and Lupe Fiasco bought a pair of trousers I'd made, and a few other artists picked some up.

The term "rock" has, unfortunately, become appropriated by four-year-old girls and accountants. An accountant does something amazingly well on the stock exchange and his buddies high-five him: He's a rock star! A four-year-old girl learned to ride a bicycle: She's a rock star!

Christmas to me is very much about family and the depths of winter.

I'm not really caught up in the whole commercial thing of Christmas. I'm probably more of a pagan than a Christian, but it's hard not to get caught up in it.

I work at my life and I cultivate myself and don't spend six hours in a gym. Some people would say I should but why?

What I consider to be the barometer for what is a rock artist and what is not, is somebody who has a certain element of blues, even a hint of soul or blues music, derivative of African-American blues, folk, spiritual, or gospel.

I've liked the Yankees since I was a kid. I grew up in Canada so I kind of identified with New York sports teams.

What is the popular image of rock star? A rail-thin, overly-paid, narcissistic, average-talented individual who self-implodes in front of everybody, eternally having a party and who looks eternally youthful?

I do know that there is a difference between artists who are career-driven and artists who have a calling and are just compelled to make music, compelled to perform live, and the business isn't the reason they're doing it. In fact, there isn't really a reason. You just do it.

Usually when I see Matthew [McConaughey] at a show, he'll be down in front with his shirt off with two beers just going mental, lit up and having an amazing time.

Chris Martin is more of a musician and hasn't really put himself out there as a television host or anything like that.

I used to make all my clothes when I was in Southern Death Cult [the first incarnation of The Cult]. I still make things to wear on stage and I am involved with sketching, choosing fabric, cutting.

When you look at men's fashion magazines, you see a lot of well-groomed guys in suits, but very rarely do you see a lot of guys in drop-crotch and hoods with high-tops. It's coming, though, because guys in suits and short hair are beginning to look like they're from another time.

I had a great conversation with Trent Reznor. Trent said, "I'd have a sixpack, too, if I didn't write my own music!"

I much prefer being in the studio or on stage and staying out of the mainstream really.

Occasionally I like a really good pair of shoes. A pair of leather shoes from Gieves & Hawkes in England, Buckshot Brogue, they look really sick.