Gina Schock Quotes

In The Go-Go‘s, my philosophy is that I contribute whatever the song requires. I never think, ‘What can I put in here to show off the latest trick that I just picked up?’ What I think is, ‘What’s required from me as a drummer to make this a better song?’

We talk about, ‘Wow, thank God that we were out when we were, because it was much easier then.’ There wasn’t paparazzi following you every step of your day, every move you make.

The only problem is, that the musicians, the guys, their careers can go from the time they’re 18 ’till they’re 50 years old and when they get wrinkles, they’re ‘character lines.’ But when girls get ’em, they’re wrinkles!

Every time I see a story about the Go-Go’s, it sounds like a gossip column about our health or our love life.

When we play live, we go back to our punk roots.

I always thought: ‘Oh my God, we are going to be famous, we’re going to be huge.’ We were 21, 22 years old.

Commercial success certainly helps pay the bills.

Mick Jagger visited us backstage and told us how much he liked our show. Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts came back too, and they wanted to get their pictures taken with us. Bill Wyman knew our chart positions. I couldn’t believe it.

Sometimes the recognition gets weird.

For us, gender didn’t come up. We were friends who happened to play together. We never said, ‘Gee, we’re an all-girl band!’

In the beginning, we’d walk off stage and burst into tears, ’cause we were getting bottles thrown at us, and boys were spitting all over us.

Things have never been easy for us, from the beginning.

Most people think that girls can’t play because they’re girls.

When I was much younger I tried to play guitar and bass first. Drums were just the easiest thing for me to play. I picked it up really quickly.

It wouldn’t be in the typical fashion of the Go-Go’s that anything isn’t a struggle.

Money can be pretty ugly.

You had to fight every inch of the way, that’s what made us trailblazers.

We’ve had that carefree, light-hearted image of fun, fun, fun. Everyone knows it’s not really like that.

I mean, all the record companies said no, you know, say 10 record companies, whatever. But one said yes, and it took only one to make The Go-Go’s happened.

We were constantly together. Anybody who had a boyfriend had to go through the Go-Go’s first. It was a little too close for comfort after a while.

They’re my sisters. We don’t always like each other, but we’ll always love each other.

We showed record companies that they shouldn’t be scared just because it’s an all-girl band. We could play just as well as the boys.

The girls are such a part of my life. When times are tough, we sort of pull together as like a family does – not always liking each other, but certainly love each other at the end of the day.

Money, ego and drugs – that’s what caused the demise of our band.

The first album is a special one for most bands or most artists in general. The first record is your whole life, and then after that you have a couple of months to write stuff and get it for the next record.

There are a lot more women drummers now than there used to be, and I’d like to think that I’m part of the reason.

Being in this band is like being in high school all over again. We’re like a bunch of little maniacs.

You know, you can only get beat up so much. And then you turn it around, and you’re like, OK, we’re not taking this anymore.

To influence people to do something they love, it’s a wonderful thing.

I can’t see us getting into, like, long solos.

Everybody was apprehensive about a documentary. When we’re all dead and gone, we don’t want to leave something that is not going to be representing the band in a true and honest way that shows everything that’s important.

We didn’t like the way that our ‘Behind the Music’ came out at all, to say the least, and so it made everybody kind of gun-shy about ever doing anything like that again.

I had decided on L.A. because I felt like I could handle the cost of living out there. It was just too difficult in San Francisco and New York.

All these years later there’s still something magical when we play. Who would‘ve thought when we started out that 40 years later we’d still be together and people would still be interested.

I’ll tell you, girl fans were actually pushier than the guys. The guys got scared, because when the five of us were together, we were out of control. If I were in the room with the five of us, I’d leave. It’s like a five-headed monster.

We may have broken up at the height of our fame, but it was not the height of our success.

I just love being in this band.

We were so poor. Every item of clothing came from a thrift store.

Everybody’s been blessed with something, and my gift is my timing. Let’s face it, it’s all about keeping time and having a groove.

We got a thumbs-down from every label. But you gotta keep the faith, man. You gotta hang in there and be tenacious.

I just don’t like to be called a ‘woman‘ or a ‘lady‘ because I don’t feel like either a woman or a lady. I feel like a musician.

I’d keep the bay windows open, and neighbors would walk by and say, ‘Oh, that’s Gina playing music.’ They were fascinated.

You know, I’ve always wanted this, to be playing music and making money and all. But, it is really weird.

We used to be such prima donnas.