I usually write when I’m in a great place. When I’m depressed, I don’t usually write. So I take all of when I’m depressed and throw it into when I’m feeling good. Weird, I guess. – Del Shannon
I was an outcast growing up with a bunch of Christian people. My father didn’t go to church, and that was not good news if you lived right in the middle of it. – Del Shannon
I saw I could rhyme words. It came simply to me. But I wrote some pretty horrible songs that I still have on tape. – Del Shannon
If it’s a whole show of my own, I’ll do more of what I think Del Shannon is. But for shows like Disneyland, I’ll just do mainly hits. That’s what they want to hear. I don’t want to bore people. If I wanted that much to play nothing but 12 new songs, then I should go do it in a bar somewhere for peanuts. – Del Shannon
When I was 20, I was drinking. When I was 30, I was drinking more, and at 40, way too much. – Del Shannon
There were times in my career when I would try to write songs like Bob Dylan… Artists get hooked up in that. To be a follower, you lose. – Del Shannon
I laughed at Willie Nelson, wondering why he spends all his life on that tour bus. And I look at myself, and I’m sitting in airplanes half the time. – Del Shannon
Nobody thinks mystery writers go around killing people, but they always seem to assume singers are singing about themselves, especially if you write melancholy songs like me. – Del Shannon
