Quotes by Drew Shirley taken from interviews, concerts, conversations, DVD’s, & podcasts. We are constantly adding more quotes to these pages. Check back often!
FUNNY QUOTES
(Switchfootage 2) Drew: “What about the time when I shot that bufflo?!”
“I like big boats I cannot lie!”
“I’m so hahhy.”
“All of us are married, and three of us have kids — not to each other.”
“No. Yes! That was a joke.”
“We’ve wandered around, lost backstage looking for the stage doors [so often] that they actually started putting up these arrows and sheets of paper with arrows on them.”
“You can’t trust anyone over 30… I don’t trust myself.”
“I was surfing the pillow.”
“Sorry, I’m awesome”
“Bring out the dwarf!”
“College was a huge time of learning, and the classes were alright too!”
“I like to made weird noises.”
GOD/CHRISTIANITY/FAITH QUOTES
“I’m thankful that God hasn’t let me go, because I’ve let Him go, lots of times. He rescued me and continues to amaze me with things that are beyond what I deserve for myself.”
“My life is going to be so short. The Bible says we’re like grass: we grow, then we’re done. The most important thing in the whole world is to love God and to love others. That is the most important commandment that all the others hang on.”
“A lot of times I’m bound to my thoughts, my schedule, and the burdens I put on myself — things I have to do today. When I stop, take a deep breath, and realize there is no feeling on me unless I put it there, I find that freedom to pray and ask God to carry the burdens. The Bible says to ‘cast your cares on Him.’ When I catch a moment of freedom, I’m happy with whatever I’m doing, whether it’s playing music or chewing a peice of Juicy Fruit gum.”
“Going through struggles for the sake of Christ is, in the Bible, said to be greater than gold. That your faith would be refined to that. It actually says to be glad and to rejoice about your sufferings in the name of Christ. And like Jon was saying, that’s a beautiful, hard thing, but it’s richer than gold.”
“Relationships are the most important thing. That’s where the love of God is displayed, that’s where we live out our faith and the fruit grows.”
“Playing music in the name of the creator…that’s the highest calling to excellence any musician could have. I’m not the greatest… but I serve the One who is.”
“My high school and college years were the time when I began deepening my understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus is all about who I am and not just what I do.”
“If anything I do is good, I thank Jesus for He has made all the difference in my life.”
DEEP/INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES
“I find that humility is what you think of yourself. So, when I hang out with friends they only know me as who I am. It’s all about who you choose to surround yourself with.”
“I’m sure a lot of people watch this are going through a lot of different things, a lot of things I may have been in contact with, a lot of things that I don’t know about personally but, as a musician and a writer, as an artist, and as someone that’s filled with hope, just wanna let you guys know that there’s always a way out. The way it is, isn’t the way it has to be. There’s always hope, and there’s always a way out, there’s always options and people to talk to, and people that love you, even in a world where it seems like nobody does. It’s easy to feel like you’re the only one that’s going through something like that, but you are not. There’s other people going through the same things, there’s other people that are filled with love and hope for you, even though you may not even know them. So have hope, and if you don’t feel hope, just know that it’s there. And if I had to pick one of our songs that I’ve been thinking about along those lines, that would be ‘Dare You To Move’ – it’s one of our oldest, most known songs. And it’s about a boxer who’s on his back, almost knocked out. And it’s a song of motivation, just saying ‘you know what, I dare you to move, just get up and get off the floor’, and stand up, and get moving. And, don’t lose hope. So I guess I would just say, ‘I dare you to move.’”
“When I go to the studio, I love to stop by a place called ‘Mama Kats’ because it’s a family-owned restaurant by some friends of mine. I go in and they go, ‘hey, Drew! You want your normal? You want your breakfast burrito [and] your coffee to go?’ It’s a connection to something that’s real; it’s a connection to people’s lives. Micky owns it, and that’s the thing: he loves people, he loves the relationships there. It’s a place where you come in and everyone greets you. And I think that’s important for me. When you are in Hollywood, when you are in a band, when you are in the entertainment industry, a lot of people shelter themselves and don’t wanna be known at all, because they want to protrait an image that’s something other than who they are. But I want to be known, I want to have connections to people around me, that know who I am, that know my cores, that know the things I like and things I don’t like. And you never know who you are meeting, you may just run into someone that starts talking your ears off about who knows what!”
“Greatness has nothing to prove to anyone, but serves everyone.”
“We all have a lot going on. I mean, everybody has jobs, bills and houses, and stuffs to take care of. But you’ll find that your life will change when you stop JUST thinking about yourself, and start thinking about other people. That’s one thing we want to do as a band, you know, bring hope to the hopeless. We want to bring hope to the hopeless.”
“When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in my life, my dad gave me this advice: ‘You’d better do something that makes you happy, because you’re going to do it for a long time.’ I think success is to please God and enjoy the work no matter how much you make or don’t make or how big of a job you think you have or don’t have. Even if I were a farmer in the middle of nowhere, if I enjoyed doing it, that would be success.”
“Any time that we can bring hope to the hopeless… that’s just something that’s close to our heart.”
“What we want to do is bring hope wherever we can, whether it be with Habitat for Humanity, like our last tour, or Write Love on Her Arms, here. The message of hope is the same.”
“Think about the future. There are so many more opportunities and things coming up in your life, that you don’t want to screw up now by getting on the wrong path. It’s like your jumping on a subway that’s headed the wrong direction. You go that way and it’s not as easy to find your way back.”
“Think about where you want to be in five or ten years. You are making decisions right now that will either take you in that direction or not take you in that direction.”
MUSIC QUOTES
(Performing music live) “One of the greatest moments in life for me. We love playing live, and every show is different, we see it as a conversation. Music, it’s one of those things… you’re creating art in the moment. It’s almost like time stands still.”
(Advice for starting out musicians) “Enjoy the ride! Some of the best memories for me are the early days when I had no idea what I was doing, (still don’t sometimes ha), and play your own style.”
(On journeys of Vice Verses and Hello Hurricane) “Vice Verses is our most soulful album to date, I think lyrically and musically. We’re at a place where we really know who we are, and this is a solid collection of songs that was recorded all at one time. We have really sough after our identity through a lot of things and ways, and Hello Hurricane was really kind of like an identity-search for us in a number of ways… it was a long road, a long journey. This album Vice Verses is a shorter journey, it’s more concise, it’s songs that have hope, and a lot of life experiences that we’ve lived, and the way that we’ve seen the world over the last 15 years as a band… just kind of all seeps its way into these songs. And I am so proud of thse songs, really. Jon, our lead singer, has written some of the most honest songs I’ve ever heard him write. I mean, some of my favourite absolute… and I mean I’ve heard them all, even the ones that aren’t released… but these songs as a collection are really special.”
“There is definitely an aspect of confession in our songs. With an honest statement about something, you always kind of have a bit confession to make. It’s kind of like the best songs are the most honest ones to us, and the ones that carry the heart and soul of the band, which is not allowing the storms to be the final word. We want the hope to be the final word. And we are reaching towards… there’s a song called ‘Where I Belong’ and it’s the last track on the record, and it’s really reaching towards what’s not there yet, which if you know the definition of faith, that’s what it is. And hope is not hope if you have it already, if you can see it, if you have it, it’s not hope. Hope is something that you’re reaching towards, you’re going after, and you’re going to get. So there is a lot of hope that we’ve found in the storm, and Hello Hurricane was a journey through a lot of life storms: our country went through a recession, relationships crumble, we experienced a lot of turmoil… just in our touring life, we’re so busy, disconnected a little bit and things like that. And that was reaching for hope, and [...] you can learn a lot about yourself if you are honest about what you are going through. So it’s not just about saying ‘I am fine, nothing happened’ You know, that’s not what it’s about, it’s about being honest about what’s happened, and being honest about what the hope is going forward.”
“I love guitar tones, I love finding them. I guess what I do is collect the tones; I’m a tone-collector!”
“Stuff has a story. You can take a piece of it with you, and implement it in what you do today: old music, old cars, old guitars, old amps, old photography, old chairs. You can take all those things, and put them into what you’re doing musically – and that’s what I love to do.”
(On album Vice Verses) “Coming into who I am I think on this record as a guitar player, figuring out what it is that I can give to this band and to these songs, where you capture something that just… was there for a moment and then gone… and probably couldn’t do it again. I like that anyway.”
“Those are the things that I listen for in other records, and try to figure out, ‘how did they do that?!’ I listen to old Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, or even the things from the ’80s and ’90s and I try to figure out ‘how did they get that sound, how did they do that?’ Don’t get me wrong, I like technology and the new things and the beeps and buzzes, and all the crazy keyboard synth thing that you can do – those are great. But those that stood the test of time, have a real quality to them, have a real soul. I wanna make music that’s lasting, I wanna make music that stands the test of time, and so I have to build off those other things.”
(On Dark Horses) “I see us as the dark horses as well, y’know, kind of as a band. Sort of ones that are counted out, the underdogs, the loser, [the outcasts,] the unexpected. We’ve never fit in, really, to a lot of the normal music genres and scenes. We play with rock bands but we have slower songs too. And we have rock songs, but we don’t play churches, but we play venues. So, y’know, people have had a hard time labeling us, which is just fine with me. That’s fine with us, but I think I feel like ‘Dark Horses’ kind of represents us in a way, too.”
(Commercial/mainstream success vs. Christianity) “I mean, [there are] so many great bands [that are out there]! Anberlin, a great band! Number one rock song, they’ve done great on mainstream radio. Tons of great bands that people now are kind of, ‘Oh, yeah! Sweet!’ We always think that ‘faith is not a genre of music; faith is what you believe, rock n’ roll is what we play.’ So if people want to talk about faith and ask us if we have a worldview that involves that faith, YES. If you want to talk about rock n’ roll, just turn up the amps and talk about how we record music and what it’s like, we love to do that. But to talk about ‘Christian music’ is kind of not the same conversation.”
“There’s something very special about that song [Dare You to Move] – the way it connects to people and lifts people up. Which is what we want to do as a band – bring hope to the hopeless, bring life to the lifeless, bring people out of any darkness. We’ve seen that song do that over the years. We’ve gotten letters, emails, pictures, books and all kinds of things connected to that song. It just really resonates with that sense of yearning that is universal with just human yearning.”
“We’ve flirted with those pitfalls in the past. But that’s a really dangerous slippery slope… trying to make music like that, trying to second guess what other people like. We’ve learned to just make music that we’re proud of, without making any sacrifices. And if that happens, then it doesn’t matter if someone else likes it or not. I think if we like it, someone else will.”
“I think the good songs, they improve with time. It sounds like a cliche, but they are actually like a fine wine. The meaning changes, but that’s not to say the meaning is weakened by the experience. Sometimes it adds legs to the emotion of the song. I’d say that’s best thing about being in Switchfoot – that we play songs that we believe. I know that for some bands, the songs that are their ‘hits’, those that they have to play night after night, are the songs that they hate playing. I feel very fortunate that it’s not the case with us.”
“We are Christians by our faith, but maybe not by our genre of music. We are Christians in a band, but we don’t want to play music only for Christians. We want anyone and everyone to listen — just like how we grew up listening to Led Zeppelin or the Police or Miles Davis or Stevie Wonder. They’ve all got things to say that we can learn from.”
“We believe in something bigger than just our songs. We always saw ourselves as a band for thinking people who are interested in challenging questions.”
“We ask a lot of questions — some we found answers for and others we’re still looking for along the way. We just hope there’s an open door for people to enjoy the music we make.”
(Talking about Shadow Proves the Sunshine) “That was a tricky one just because of how much the song meant to us. At least for me… it met so much it was like man I really want this to be… the music and the arrangement to really fit the powerful lyrics and the things that are behind the song. Originally I was like ‘I don’t want to play guitar on this song’ because I didn’t want to screw it up. I just wanted to opt out. But we struggled it, we wrestled it. And it’s sometimes a fight, sometimes it’s a process where it starts one way then takes a turn then takes another turn then you end up somewhere you end up somewhere you didn’t even realize you were going to go.”
(On singing in Needle and Haystack Life) “This is my singing debut. It feels pretty good, ya’ know? We have a podcast where I tried out for Canadian Idol… sort of a joke. Now, this is much different.”
“As a band, we live and breathe on the road. That’s kind of what sells the music, to be honest. We know bands that make a studio record and leave it to people to get it or not get it. We find that if you connect with than fans in concert they’re a fan for life. We have a solid fan base, There are people who believe in what we’re doing along with us. It’s a connection thing more than anything for us. We have to get out there and play for them.”
BAND QUOTES
“Definitely wouldn’t be the player or the person I am without Jon and Tim, Chad and Jerome – those guys all have a big influence on me, musically and personally. We wanna feel these songs take us somewhere great, and hopefully take other people there too. But it starts here as this whirlwind, and if it’s not happening with us, it’s not gonna happen out there… just, it’s got to be happening with us as a band. I love what I do, I love going down that road with these guys.”
“The songs are a big part of it. They carry us through. I love what I do, but that’s not to say I don’t get tired. Travelling for most of the year can become a grind if it weren’t for the fact that we believe in these songs. And the other thing is that the four guys with whom I travel with – they’re my best friends. That’s not something I say lightly or in a trite sense. We’ve all come to blows with each other; we’ve had fights with one another; we’ve been through real struggles together. It’s not a flimsy friendship we have.”
“I don’t know how some bands do it: They only meet up to do the show and after the show they say goodbye. I don’t know how that works. I’m sure it works for some, but I think I’d be miserable.”
“We honestly are brothers; we have two brothers, in the band, but then we’re all brothers of different mothers.”
“We’re an old fashion sweaty rock band.”
“We will play what we think is cool.”
“We really stick with each other through thick and thin.”
(on Switchfoot) “I liked the band before I started playing in it.”
“I count these guys closer than my own brothers.”
“Anytime you can travel, play music and go surfing, that’s the best job in the world.”
“Jon is releasing four EPs which are great, phenomenal, solo songs that you guys should check out.”
FANS/CONCERTS/TOUR QUOTES
“I prefer to play venues under 1000 personally.”
“We have a family out here on the road with eachother. We’re a very band of brothers type of group.”
“We want to meet people afterward, and we want to connect with our fans. We really thank them for supporting us. Because you know you’re a real band when you go out and play shows and people come to see you. These days people don’t buy music, but if they put their money down for a ticket, you know they’re in. And this cause, To Write Love on Her Arms, is massive and important. Bring a friend to the show. Love is a movement.”
(On FOTF) “We just wanted something exclusive for the people who are like our core fans.”
(On message boards) “I’m reading the threads, and I come in like a stealth bomber, but I don’t post a lot. But I do get in there and read it and check out what’s going on.”
KIDS ISSUES/ADOPTION/STANDUP FOR KIDS/BRO-AM QUOTES
“The Bro-Am is an event that we dreamed up, ‘cos we love surfing and we love music, and we love helping kids. And we put those things together, created the best day of a year in San Diego. It is sponsoring an organisation called ‘StandUp for Kids’, which is national now, and at-risk youth that are homeless and going through situations that I haven’t even gone through but that I learned about, and sympathetic towards, and wanna help with… so this is our way to do that. We do a concert on the beach, it’s looking at the Pacific Ocean, you know there’s crowds of six- to eight-thousand there that we play and there’s the horizon there. There’s surf contest where a lot of pro-surfers come and give their time… [...] and we help raise money that way. And then we do an auction, which auctions off a lot of stuff, raise a lot of money that way. And then it is an annual thing, so we do it every year, and we hope to just raise awareness – we wanna lift up things that are doing well. We see StandUp for Kids and we really wanna help elevate that, they’re doing such a great work, more work that we’ll ever be able to do. We’re a rock band, we go out and play music, we play songs, I play the guitar… but I can help lelvate things that are important. We try to do that with our twitter, with our facebook, with our album songs, with our quotes and things like that. Because there are so many people that are doing such great things around the world, and so this is one of them that we’ve been able to find the niche to in surfing and music. And this is the Switchfoot Bro-Am.”
(On the thing that weighs heaviest on his heart) “For me, I’ve been thinking about adoption. And I’ve had some guitar pedals that we’ve made, and James has pedals, and we had my daughter hand-paint them – and all the proceeds are going to go to adoption agencies to help kids find parents that love them. And then I got a couple other friends in my life who are adopting, and we’ve been talking about it lately. So I guess that’s something that weighs heavy on my heart, just kids needing parents that love them. Anytime a kid is abused… when I see that I’m hurt. They’re always the victim in the situation, and then when you carry that one step further: handicapped kids really really really get me fired up because they’re often taken advantage of and abused. You know, locked in the closet or the car, and [I know] I’m thinking of extreme situations here. But my younger brother has Down Syndrome and so I’ve grown up around a lot of handicapped kids, and seen how beautiful their personalities are and how loving and carefree their minds can be – when they’re just allowed to be themselves – and given them the confidence to just be whoever God made them to be. So that is something that really makes my heart beat.”
“I’m passionate about children’s issues. We went to South Africa and worked with children who had been orphaned by AIDS. Children are always the victims. After South Africa, we decided that was something close to our hearts. And I went to Thailand and met some people who were working with girls who were caught in human trafficking. None of them would ever choose to be in such a horrible place. None of them would ever choose to be born into such a horrible thing. Kids are also being trained to fight eachother in Sudan, Africa. Sometimes I’m just overwhelmed with world issues. It’s a crazy world we live in.”
“My younger brother has Down syndrome, so I’ve always had a sensitivity to handicapped kids.”
LOVE/FAMILY QUOTES
“My family is something I’m most passionate about. Your family is your legacy. How my daughter goes on to live and the family she ends up raising will carry on a lot farther than the music we play. A lot of people place all the importance on the music, but that’s just what I do. If my wife said, ‘I can’t handle you touring anymore’, [then] that would be it for me.”
(On marriage and being away from home) “I wouldn’t be able to be here if Jenna wasn’t – if my wife – wasn’t okay with it. Do you know what I mean? Because if she was like ‘I can’t do this’, then I would be like ‘I can’t do this.’”
“Being away from home is the hardest thing.”
“Our families believe in what we are doing. It’s not like they are home complaining, they are behind us 100%.”
MISCELLANEOUS QUOTES
“I don’t normally name my guitars… but the ES330 did come with a sticker that says Estelle… so, ya.”
“My dancing skills come from many house dance parties… one of my favorite things to do!”
“I love going to the beach. I love the outdoors. If I worked under flourscent lights, I would go crazy. Fortunately, in my line of work, I don’t have to. I like to read. I like vintage cars and going to thrift stores. It’s like a hobby even if I don’t need anything. Who knows? I might have a Lionel Richie jacket from a thift store.”
(On playing sports) “I run when someone’s chasing me.”
“I might wear white pants.”
“We did this thing one time and there were all these guitar players at it, at the Gibson Amphitheatre. I’m standing backstage alongside Slash from Guns ‘N Roses, Robben Ford, a phenomenal jazz/blues musician, Steve Lukather, who played on Michael Jackson albums and was in Toto. I’m just, like, ‘what am I doing here? I’m just a kid.’ But it was fun we got to play with all those guys.”
“I don’t see myself as much as a guitarist as I do just a musician. So my influences are quite varied. I’ve always liked Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page has been a great influence on me. And Miles Davis and even Michael Jackson. I listened to the older stuff like ‘Thriller’ and ‘Beat It’. I also very much like a lot of new music – Band of Horses, My Morning Jacket, even Death Cab for Cutie.”
“I dreamed I was at a Kid Rock concert in Birmingham, Alabama. He started playing and Lynard Skynard was there and we got on the roof and the cops were saying they were going to arrest us for being on the roof. And I was saying, Why? They made us jump off the roof. Actually, now that I think about it, that was real.”
“Guitar Hero is awesome!”