I actually did try to emigrate to Australia a long time ago.

Look at Bob Dylan: his voice is not a great sound, but it gets the idea across... and that is what's really important.

We're basically a rock band - guitar, bass, drums and vocals. But we take it further than that. We can be rotten, dirty, and heavy as anyone, but at the same time, we've got a lot of melody.

I'm a normal person. I don't see where people come off saying I'm crazy.

There's no rush to ever put out a new Cheap Trick record. We put it out when we feel like it.

I never tried to emulate The Beatles, and I never really wanted to be like The Rolling Stones. I never really felt that I had the look or the demeanor of veteran musicians.

We've got the pretty-boy lead singer and the fat, dumpy drummer, and I'm the zany guitarist. Sure, we've played up the image at times. But it's the music that matters most.

I could have moved anywhere I wanted to. But for family reasons, I stayed in the Midwest.

When I write songs, it's just me and a cassette player - or at least it used to be before smartphones - to quickly record a basic idea.

I don't know any American rock bands.

If you start having to tell people you're cool, you're not.

My parents were opera singers. I didn't want to play opera because I wasn't good enough. I didn't want to play their music; I wanted to play the music that I wanted to play, and I'm so lucky that today I get to play that music, even though I don't like every song I write.

We're Cheap Trick, and the majority of people know about three songs, and the real huge fans know about eight. There are 292 songs people have never heard.

I love to be the loudest thing in the room.

I didn't want to be one of the Beach Boys or one of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band. I mean, we appreciated that music. But I didn't want to grow a beard to look like Roy Wood just because I liked him.

I started out as a drummer, and when I was 9, my drum teacher had an album out. He was the rudiment king! He signed it for me, 'Rudimentally yours, Frank Arsenault.' How cool is that?

I feel like such an idiot... you know, that our band didn't break up just so we can re-form and become more and more popular.

Whenever we tell the truth, nobody believes us. We lie, and people take it as etched-in-stone fact.

I always thought of myself as more of a rhythm player than a big soloist.

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - those guys were great.

I was always the wise guy class clown throughout my childhood.

Playing in Japan for thousands of people was like playing on the moon.

People say, 'Oh, Rick, he's crazy.' Well, I'm crazy, and I'm not crazy... When I went to my high school reunion, I was the only one there doing what he said he was going to do. How crazy is that?

I don't always feel like a million dollars, but I try not to let anybody know.