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Al Yankovic

Al Yankovic Quotes

Singer-songwriter

Al Yankovic, born on October 23, 1959, is a renowned American singer-songwriter and comedian. Known for his unique sense of humor and satirical songs, he often uses his music to satirize social phenomena and popular culture. His musical style ranges from rock to country and pop music.

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All People Parody Thinking Ifs Song Trying Kind Knows Albums Years

Famous Al Yankovic Quotes

“What kind of morons do you have working at newspapers in Austin that would base an entire review of an artist's performance on whether or not they had a good seat?”

Kind Artist Performances Newspapers Seats Reviews Moron Austin

Author:Al Yankovic

“When I go to my live shows it's often a multigenerational audience, a family bonding experience.”

Shows Audience Bonding Family Bonding

Author:Al Yankovic

“Whenever I do a parody it's not meant to make you hate anybody's music really.”

Author:Al Yankovic

“If something is good enough, it can be out there and people will see it.”

People Ifs Enough Good Enough

Author:Al Yankovic

“It's hard to force creativity and humor.”

Hard Force Creativity

Author:Al Yankovic

“Probably 90 percent of my albums have polka medleys.”

Percent Albums Polka Medley

Author:Al Yankovic

“There aren't that many superstars around anymore.”

Author:Al Yankovic

“You don't need to be defined by your job.”

Needs Jobs Defined

Author:Al Yankovic

“It becomes more important to me as time goes on to make every album the best thing I've ever done, so it's a lot of self-imposed pressure that also kind of slows me down a bit.”

Kind Important Self Done Bits Goes On Pressure Albums Best Things Time Goes On

Author:Al Yankovic

“One of the hardest things I've had to deal with in my career is keeping my material topical even though I only release albums every three or four years.”

Years Three Deals Careers Four Materials Albums Hardest Release Four Years Hardest Thing

Author:Al Yankovic

“Somebody will come up to me after a show and have me sign their arm, and the next time I see them my autograph has been permanently inscribed on their arm.”

Has Beens Shows Next Arms Come Up Next Time Autographs

Author:Al Yankovic

“I can bend paper clips into the shapes of small animals.”

I Can Work Animal Shapes Paper Clip Small Animals Paper Clips

Author:Al Yankovic

“I'm always a little leery about doing shows where I'm not the headliner because when I first started playing in 1982 I opened for Missing Persons and got pelted for 45 minutes. After that, I made the decision to headline no matter what, even if I was playing to seven people. I wanted people to be there to see me.”

People Ifs Firsts Littles Persons Made Matter Shows Wanted Decision Minutes Missing No Matter What Seven Headlines Missing A Person

Author:Al Yankovic

“I try not to go the obvious route all the time, but sometimes the most obvious is actually the best.”

Trying Sometimes Obvious Routes

Author:Al Yankovic

“There's a lot of different ways that a song would be a challenge to parody. There are a lot of songs that would ostensibly be a good candidate for parody, yet I can't think of a clever enough idea. Some songs are too repetitive for me to be able to fashion a humorous set of lyrics around. Some songs flat-out just don't work creatively for me.”

Thinking Way I Can Ideas Different Enough Would Be Able Song Challenges Fashion Humorous Clever Different Ways Candidates Flats Parody Repetitive

Author:Al Yankovic

“Sometimes I get, "Have you ever thought about doing real music?" I like to think the music I do is real, it just happens to be funny.”

Thinking Real Sometimes Happens Real Music

Author:Al Yankovic

“That's a big part of my life - doing things that I'm not prepared to do. Doing things that I don't know how to do, and keep doing them until I get good at them. I always try to put myself out of my comfort zone and out of my depth, and hopefully somewhere along the line I'll catch up.”

Knows Trying Bigs Lines Know How Comfort Prepared Depth Hopefully Zone Comfort Zone

Author:Al Yankovic

“The music has always been my bread and butter, and I've focused more of my attention on that.”

Attention Focused Bread Bread And Butter

Author:Al Yankovic

“I've always known that if I recorded an album, it would come out, and people would enjoy it! Whereas if I wrote a movie script, chances are better than even that I'd just be another guy in L.A. with a movie script in his drawer.”

People Ifs Guy Enjoy Chance Known Scripts Albums Chances Are Other Guys Drawers

Author:Al Yankovic

“I'm free to do what I please, I'm probably not going to do albums. Just because I think releasing tracks as singles is a better way for me to stay topical.”

Thinking Way Please Track Albums Better Ways Singles

Author:Al Yankovic

“In the '80s, I was the only game in town, I was the only one getting that kind of exposure in any rotation on MTV. Now with internet culture it seems like everyone is doing music parodies. And they're not all good!”

Kind Seems Culture Games Internet Towns 80s Exposure Parody Mtv Rotation Internet Culture

Author:Al Yankovic

“I don't watch a lot of other people's parodies because I don't want to be unduly influenced.”

People Want Watches Parody

Author:Al Yankovic

“In fact, when I come up with an idea for a parody I try to resist the urge to Google the idea to see if someone has done it already because the answer is almost always, "Yes, of course they have, they've thought of it!"”

Ifs Trying Ideas Done Facts Courses Answers Come Up Urges Google Parody

Author:Al Yankovic

“I'm a music fan, and I can listen to the radio, or music, without thinking, "How am I going to screw this up?" [Laughs] If I'm really actively trying to think of a parody, then I'll have my antenna out, and be a little more proactive about it.”

Ifs Thinking Trying Littles I Can Laughing Fans Radio Screws Parody Proactive Music Fans Antenna

Author:Al Yankovic

“I think my chances of ever making it into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame are about as good as Milli Vanilli’s.”

Thinking Chance Rocks Fame Halls Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame

Author:Al Yankovic

“Right now I'm listening to a lot of Top 40 music, because THAT'S MY JOB.”

Jobs Listening Right Now Music Is

Author:Al Yankovic

“I start with a comprehensive list of all the recent songs that have been big hits - and then I go down that list and see if I can come up with funny ideas for them. I can always come up with ideas, but not necessarily good ones!”

Ifs Has Beens I Can Ideas Bigs Song Come Up Lists Comprehensive

Author:Al Yankovic

“I'll bet every great thinker and leader we've got Could see all kinds of things other people could not! So then why get upset if somebody like me Tries to look at the world just a bit differently?”

People Ifs World Trying Looks Kind Bits Leader Like Me All Kinds Upset Thinker Great Thinkers

Author:Al Yankovic

“I like to think that I've gotten better at what I do. I spend more time and pay more attention to detail album after album. But pretty much it's stayed the same.”

Thinking Pay Attention Albums Details More Time Attention To Detail

Author:Al Yankovic

“My process for the parodies is that I get an idea for a song and then get approval from the artist and then go in and record it and probably try to get it out as soon as possible.”

Trying Ideas Artist Song Process Records Approval Parody

Author:Al Yankovic

“I do original songs in the style of other artists, where I try to learn all their musical idiosyncrasies and try to do something that sounds like them and yet is a bit more sick and twisted.”

Trying Artist Song Bits Sound Style Sick Originals Musical Twisted Idiosyncrasies

Author:Al Yankovic

“I don't want to pooh-pooh modern pop. I appreciate that as well, but my personal favorite kind of music is guitar-based rock. I like grunge and garage bands and alternative music, but that's more my personal taste.”

Want Wells Kind Modern Rocks Taste Band Music Is Appreciate Guitar Pops Alternatives Garage Grunge Personal Taste Alternative Music

Author:Al Yankovic

“I enjoy all kinds of music. But it is kind of strange when I do parodies, instead of setting up drums and guitar amps.”

Kind Enjoy Strange Guitar Setting All Kinds Settings Parody

Author:Al Yankovic

“I can't say enough good things about my band. I feel very fortunate that I found them when I did, very early in my career. Not only are they just great, nice guys; they're some of the best musicians you're likely to find. They do everything from gangsta rap to polka music and every genre in between. It's amazing.”

Feels I Can Enough Guy Found Careers Nice Band Musician Good Things Rap Genre Fortunate Nice Guy Gangsta Polka Gangsta Rap

Author:Al Yankovic

“My own personal tastes don't really have an effect on whether song is a parody target or not. But having said that, I try to pick songs that I actually like because I realize that I have to live with these songs for a long time, from when I'm working on them in the studio to possibly playing them onstage for the rest of my life. So I try not to pick songs that I know would drive me crazy.”

Knows Trying Long Said Song Realizing My Own Crazy Effects Taste Long Time Picks Studios Target Parody Drive Me Crazy Personal Taste

Author:Al Yankovic

“I don't like to label myself. I know I'm very hard to pigeonhole.”

Knows Hard Labels

Author:Al Yankovic

“I do a lot of different things, sometimes at the same time, and it's very difficult to figure out where I fit.”

Different Sometimes Difficult Figures Fit Different Things

Author:Al Yankovic

“When I started out, I didn't feel like I was really accepted in the music or comedy communities, and I was somewhere on the edge, but now I feel like I'm accepted in both, which is extremely gratifying.”

Feels Community Comedy Edges Accepted

Author:Al Yankovic

“It was difficult to get into my friends' rock bands when I was a teenager. They somehow didn't see the need for an accordion player. That's when I realized that I had to find my own path in life.”

Needs Difficult My Own Path Player Rocks Band My Friends I Realized Teenager Rock Bands Accordions

Author:Al Yankovic

“I cut my teeth playing rock songs on the accordion when I was a teenager and my friends always thought that was extremely amusing. I think that was the genesis of my polka medleys, because every rock song I played on the accordion just sounded like a polka and my friends thought it was funny. So that was a joke that I continue up to this very day.”

Thinking Song Cutting Rocks Jokes My Friends Teeth Teenager Amusing Genesis Accordions Polka Rock Song Medley

Author:Al Yankovic

“I'd like to be able to be more topical and timely and more of-the-moment and I think the way to do that is, instead of waiting until I have twelve songs to release all at once, just to release them as I come up with them.”

Thinking Way Moments Able Song Waiting Come Up Release Twelve Timely

Author:Al Yankovic

“As a wise man once said, “April Fools Day is for amateurs. You NEVER need an excuse to mess with people's heads.””

People Men Needs Said Wise Fool Excuse Mess April Wise Man Once Said April Fools Day April Fools Fools Day

Author:Al Yankovic

“Beans, beans, the magic legumes - the more you ingest, the more you consume.”

Author:Al Yankovic

“In a genre where most of the artists are one-hit wonders, I've been able to hang around longer than most "serious" acts. I pride myself in being a very talented leech.”

Able Artist Wonder Serious Pride Genre Leeches

Author:Al Yankovic

“Well I've made no secret of my life long love of MAD Magazine, it's probably my first and greatest influence in terms of my comic sensibilities. I've known John [Ficarra] for many years, and we've been friends. About four or five months ago, at a dinner in New York, John made the very nice offer of my being guest editor for an issue of MAD and I thought about it for about half a nanosecond and decided that was a pretty good idea.”

“It fit pretty nicely into my schedule because we'd pretty much finished the bulk of promotion for Mandatory Fun and were just getting geared up for the World Tour so this was a nice time for me to be working on it.”

World Fun Nice Fit Finished Schedules Promotion Nice Time

Author:Al Yankovic

“I was able to come up with a couple articles for the magazine, I was able to solicit help from a bunch of my friends to contribute pieces: Patton Oswalt, Seth Green, Emo Phillips, Chris Hardwick, John Hodgman, and more. It's very much a "Weird Al" themed issue, so I'd like to think that there's a lot of "Weird Al" flavor throughout but I think it'd be generous really to call me an editor.”

Thinking Helping Able Issues Pieces Couple My Friends Green Come Up Bunch Magazines Generous Call Me Als Editors Articles Flavor Emo Weird Al

Author:Al Yankovic

“It's hard to say, I picked one of my favorite articles for the MAD vault. Which is one of the features of the Magazine so they don't have to actually pay artists or writers to come up with new stuff.”

Hard Artist Stuff Pay Mad My Favorite Come Up Magazines Features Articles Vaults New Stuff

Author:Al Yankovic

“Not any specific one, but I was a huge fan of Frank Jacobs, I guess he wrote the plurality of the song parodies for MAD, Sam Hart, a few others, but that was also where I was first exposed to the art form of song parodies.”

Firsts Art Form Song Fans Huge Mad Exposed Frank Parody Jacob Hart

Author:Al Yankovic

“I think I'm equally as abusive as the editors normally are for the "Letters and Tomatoes" column, which is the fan mail part of MAD Magazine and an ongoing feature.”

Thinking Fans Letters Mad Magazines Features Editors Mail Ongoing Columns Tomatoes Abusive Fan Mail

Author:Al Yankovic

About the Author

Born: October 23, 1959
Known for: Singer-songwriter
Quotes: 150

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