Time & Perspective Quote by Neal Schon

Schon is smuggling a whole philosophy of longevity into a casual, almost locker-room line. “I haven’t stopped playing” doesn’t read like bragging so much as a refusal: a veteran guitarist rejecting the classic rock narrative where the hits fossilize and the body follows. The real flex isn’t virtuosity; it’s continuity.

“If you play all the time” is blunt on purpose. No myth of inspiration, no romantic suffering, just the unglamorous premise that skill is maintenance. The word “chops” does heavy cultural work here: it’s musician shorthand for credibility, the thing other players can hear in a single bend or vibrato. By framing chops as something that can be “up,” Schon treats artistry like conditioning. Stop training, you lose range; keep training, you keep access to the full emotional vocabulary of the instrument.

The subtext is about fear, too. For touring musicians, especially those who came up in the arena-rock era, “stopping” isn’t only a creative risk; it’s an identity crisis. Playing becomes a way to stay metabolically alive in a business that rewards repetition and punishes rust. “You tend to grow” is the softest part of the sentence, almost an afterthought, but it lands: growth isn’t a lightning bolt, it’s a byproduct of showing up daily.

Contextually, it’s a rebuttal to nostalgia culture. Schon is insisting that musicianship isn’t a museum piece. The past might pay the bills, but the instrument still demands a present tense.