The Quotable Bob Lefsetz

Authored by Scott Goldberg on October 4, 2007 - 10:32am.

Bob Lefsetz and the Digital Music Forum West

From Digital Music Forum West 2007 - Doing his best imitation of Wallace Shawn in The Princess Bride, Bob Lefsetz (author of The Lefsetz Letter) offered 30 minutes of his time to the Digital Music Forum West this afternoon in a keynote interview with Ken Rutkowski of KenRadio.com. Needless to say the packed room would’ve gladly sat through another hour of his wisdom. Here’s a taste, and the list of other memorable quotes follows below: “MySpace isn’t about music, it’s about getting laid.” Watch a video clip of his thoughts on the direction of the music business here.

“If musicians could talk and get to work on time, they wouldn’t be musicians.”

“If you’re any good, your fans will do anything for you. They’ll pick you up from the airport, give you a place to sleep, and even suck your dick.”

“The artists in this world are very maladjusted. If you’re well adjusted, you’re not a real musician.”

(On the Radiohead free-album experiment): “It’s not about the fucking price, it’s not about the fucking money, it’s about giving the middle finger to the music business.”

(On the Radiohead free-album experiment): “They’re not going to tell us how many they sell and it doesn’t fucking matter.”

“I’m a big disbeliever in Pandora and Xfm. I put in Jackson Browne and I got Journey. There’s no connection between Jackson Browne and Journey!”

“The thing I like about XM and Sirius is they pick the music. Machines can’t do everything. I want a person picking the music.”

“Anyone who cares about DRM is stealing music.”

(Responding to an audience comment on the Mozes message board: “Bob, how can we stop the Van Halen tour?”): “If you can’t go to Van Halen and be turned on, you can’t be a friend of mine.”

“Gene Simmons needs to be credited for making a lot of money, but he’s nowhere near as smart as he says he is. Having said that, his TV show is pretty good.”