The Quotable Ryan Adams

Ryan’s banter with an audience at a recent show:

After playing the classic “Rescue Blues,” prior to performing the newer “Invisible Riverside”:
“I’m going to change the theme for the night from existential pain to confusion. [pause] Just to see what that does.”

After the somber “Two”:
“They’re just getting slower and slower, it’s like my music is dying.”

As he shuffled through a notebook, looking for a song’s lyrics:
“I had so much to say at one point.”

After a female fan requested a song from Adams’ much-maligned album “Rock and Roll”:
“I fucking hate that song. … I was trying to do the worst impression of U2 ever.”

On encores:
“The whole thing is a fucking ruse.”

On what happens when he plays an encore:
“Just in case there was one thing that was still optimistic about your life, I’ll come back and crush it like an ant.”

To Jason Isbell, who played with Adams during the encore:
“If my songs were people and your songs were people, and they happened to meet at a bar one night, your songs would kick my songs’ ass.”

Of course:
“My songs would be like a combination between a cobra and a poodle — a cobra doodle.”

In summation:
“If you leave depressed and hurt just because of my songs, then I’ve done my job.”