Ken Hensley Quotations

I didn't know that you were supposed to tune the guitar to an open chord, and I learned to play slide with a normal tuning. I think it's a little more melodic that way and doesn't sound so bluesy. Of course, if I could play like David Lindley or Ry Cooder, I'd be a happy man!

I know why I am here and my only real focused goal is to live each day to the fullest and to try and honor God and be an encouragement to others. What the future holds is firmly in God's hands, and I am very happy about that!

It is hard to understand addiction unless you have experienced it.

I always write lyrics first and the rhythm and the melody come from the lyrics. It always comes from the lyrics: words have rhythm and words have melody.

I am, first of all, a Christian and, secondly, a person with very very serious personal opinion, so I'm motivated by many many things and, certainly, not by the need or desire to satisfy other people's ideas of who I am.

It is always encouraging and kind when people say nice things about my work but I know that it is not me that did it then and it is not me that is doing it now. It is God living in me and for that I will always be grateful.

If you want to capitulate to what commercial needs are, you can always be commercially valuable, but I'm not interested in being that.

People often forget this - a vinyl album could only contain a maximum of 20 minutes per side!

When we were making vinyl records we had a lot of time limitations for each record so songs were left off for a number of reasons. Now, with CDs, much more music can be included.

I have never learned to read or write music so I am not a virtuoso musician like the others you mentioned. I am completely unable to play like them because I never learned classical music, I just developed my own crazy style!

Visible Faith is an expression of my Christian faith which must be visible to be real! I gave the name to the collection of musicians who worked with me on the record.

The past has infinite value if one learns from it.

I lived in an area where there were a lot of rock musicians, and we got together regularly in our studios.

All of us would like for everybody to be the kind of person we want them to be.

I actually never knew Peter Green but I do respect his early work very much.

It was both exciting and frustrating to work with an orchestral group.

The band projects just took natural priority. I didn't really have a solo career, just wanted to share the music in another way and to learn more about writing, recording, etcetera.

THE GODS was my first professional band and I learned a lot during that time. It was very cool playing with so many great musicians as it helped me to learn.

When I left HEEP I didn't know what I wanted! It took me a long time to adjust to life away from the band and the only thing I knew was that I didn't want to repeat my mistakes!

I have spoken to Rick Wakeman a couple of times but we move on different musical lines at the moment. And I am happy for his success.

I had written some songs while I was living in Colorado and wanted to record them there. At that time I was essentially retired, actually.

I never played in Ozzy's band. We played a lot of festival shows together and my company did supply Ozzy's bass players with equipment.

I do seem to be in the most creative phase of my life... ever! I am really enjoying it and I just let it flow as naturally as it wants to.

There is a great temptation with songs, melodies and lyrics to overcomplicate them but in fact, you find that the most enduring melodies are often the simplest.

Sacrifice - the future has it´s price, and today is only yesterday's tomorrow.

All of our most successful songs were simple, straightforward and understandable. I still don't know what makes one song a hit and not another!