Quoting Benjamin

On recording The Lace in England: “…no sun, constant wind, drizzle and clouds — just misery. The highlight of the day was, like, dinner.” — “The Rewards of Rock Stardom” by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, November 1, 1986

Quoting Benjamin

How his relationship with Diane influenced his songwriting for The Lace: “We share a large amount of romance in this life, and you can’t help but put that into music. How can you be miserable? … It’s good for now and I hope it’s good later. There’s the cynical part — you have to maintain some portion of realism.” — “The Rewards of Rock Stardom” by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, November 1, 1986

Quoting Benjamin

On the absence of touring: “I never get to play enough anymore. It’s pretty bad actually, really sad. I miss it a whole lot. It’s a chore to get on the road — a few of the guys don’t want to do it — but it’s business, and if you can make a living out of it, you’ve got to do it.” — “The Rewards of Rock Stardom” by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, November 1, 1986

Quoting Benjamin

On his feelings about The Lace: “I did the absolute best I could possibly do under the circumstances. I’m happy with what I have, but it makes me personally cringe when I don’t hear exactly [what I wanted]. Probably no one else would notice except myself and a few other people. It won’t happen like that again. It took me much too long to do this project. I wasn’t thrilled about some of the things that went on [referring to recording in England]. I’m real glad it’s over.” — “The Rewards of Rock Stardom” by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, November 1, 1986

Quoting Benjamin

With regard to his boat, the Blue Di, and writing songs on the water: “This is the best thing I’ve ever bought, bar none. It’s not too conspicuous. It’s big enough for one guy to operate and the chief pretty officer over here [referring to Diane]. She hates taking orders, but somebody’s gotta be captain of the boat… I enjoy my free time. I like doing this [boating]. I’d much rather do this, now that we’re writing…. We love the water. It’s really soothing. It seems to be good for us.” — excerpts from “The Rewards of Rock Stardom” by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, November 1, 1986

Quoting Benjamin

“At the beginning all we wanted was a record contract. It was just what every new group was hoping to get. We just wanted that record contract so that we could put our music out — so that Ric could put his music out. It was real basic.” — The Cars by Peter Goddard and Philip Kamin, 1986

Quoting Benjamin

On the reasoning behind the band name: “Who can forget the day he got his driver’s license? Or his first car, or his first drive-in? If I hadn’t had a car, I wouldn’t have driven over from Parma Heights to Fairview Park to go shopping, and I wouldn’t have met my future wife — Kris King from Bay Village. She’s a curly-haired strawberry blonde. Gorgeous!” — “The Cars take off fast in the record derby,” The Plain Dealer, June 9, 1978.

Quoting Benjamin

Ben played all the instruments on his demos for The Lace. When asked why he chose a band when it came time to record the album: “It’s much easier to sit back and watch it be done. I play a lot of instruments, but I don’t play them well. I get through them. The only thing I’m efficient at is drums.” — from “Benjamin Orr: The Cars’ Mr. Casual Steps Out” by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician Magazine, March 1987

Quoting Benjamin

On the possibility of the band breaking up: “I understand that there was some strange press going around, but I didn’t feel that it ever got to the point where it was going to be the end of the band. We never had any of those shouting matches. You’ve really got to love the people you work with, and I think there’s a certain amount of love still left.” — from “Benjamin Orr: The Cars’ Mr. Casual Steps Out” by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician Magazine, March 1987

Quoting Benjamin

“There are a lot of things I’ve done in music that I’ve never really had to think about because it just came natural.” — from “Benjamin Orr: The Cars’ Mr. Casual Steps Out” by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician Magazine, March 1987

Quoting Benjamin

On what he was doing during the three years it took to make The Lace: “Horsing around. I went to Hawaii for two weeks and stayed for three months.” — from “Benjamin Orr: The Cars’ Mr. Casual Steps Out” by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician Magazine, March 1987

Quoting Benjamin

“Door to Door just was in a separate area. It wasn’t what the entire band envisioned it to be. It wasn’t a group effort. It turned out that way, and I felt that was wrong. Door to Door was done at Electric Lady in New York. It was already written in stone when I got there. And that’s not a way to do an album.” —  from “The Cars: Shake It Up, Drive it Out,” by Steve Roeser, Goldmine, August 1, 1997