Creativity Quote by Benmont Tench

"Besides, I'm fairly incompetent. I can't play that fast" lands like a shrug, but it’s really a philosophy statement disguised as self-deprecation. Benmont Tench, the keyboardist whose parts with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers feel inevitable rather than flashy, is poking at rock’s recurring fetish for speed and virtuoso display. He’s not confessing failure so much as rejecting a scoreboard.

The line works because it’s double-edged. On the surface: a musician admitting a technical limit, almost comic in its bluntness. Underneath: a sly critique of the idea that faster equals better, that proficiency is measured in notes per second. Tench’s "incompetent" is intentionally exaggerated, a rhetorical feint that reframes competence as something deeper: taste, timing, restraint, the ability to serve a song instead of dominating it.

Context matters here. Tench comes out of an American tradition where keyboards can either become a circus act or a glue. His most memorable contributions aren’t about shredding; they’re about contouring emotion, threading harmony through a track so the chorus hits harder and the verses breathe. By calling himself incompetent, he’s also disarming the macho hierarchy that polices musicianship, especially in rock: the quiet player often gets treated like a passenger.

It’s a line that flatters the listener, too. If you get why he’s saying it, you’re already on his side: you value feel over flex.