Very occasional quote of the day: leading and musical direction

People in a band have a tendency to fall into ruts. They hear things only one way. They don't really want to change that much. The guitar player will only play guitar a certain way. It's very hard for that person to hear what I'm hearing.

On some tunes, I might be looking for someone to sound like Eric Gale, and then on another tune, to sound like Van Halen, and then on another piece, to sound like Ritenour.

That's asking a lot of one player. So I try to keep my mouth shut and take what I get from that individual. I try to see if I can't write in such a way as to get the guitar player to think about a certain genre of music to play inside.

- Billy Cobham, Modern Drummer interview by William F. Miller, July, 1986