Quotes About Authenticity

I'm not just a singer-songwriter doing songs in the key of me.

When people say the words 'singer-songwriter,' I think they have an image in their heads of someone with an acoustic guitar who is a bit woe-is-me. I'd like to think that I'm not one of those. I'm quite a happy person.

That's part of it: You can't be a country singer-songwriter if you've never had an official heartbreak.

Lou Reed is something like a personal favorite of mine, but you could always put me into that drawer of singers who can't really sing, who speak their songs.

The blues singers were talking about everyday life, and they pushed a button.

The singers who are the most honest are the ones who become immortalized.

There are other singers of ranchera music who sing very beautifully, but you can tell from the way they sing that they never lived on a ranch. They never knew what it was to milk a cow, to birth a calf, to shoe a horse. I've lived all that.

My favorite flamenco singers, they're not trying to look pretty. They're trying to put truth in what they do, in the way they express themselves. Sometimes that's not beauty, but it's beautiful.

All disco singers are non-professionals who can't do live shows. It loses what black people have created.

What I found about 'Nashville' coming in is it's about these small performances. It can be on a big stage but detailed, small, heartfelt, real performances from musicians and singers. So if you try to do something bloated or showy, the directors dial us in and let us know.

My idols are singers like Billie Holiday and Erykah Badu because there's no gloss on what they do.

I think that freshness and that innocence is something that is missing from a lot of female singers. I'm certainly not denying that I'm young, but I'm not fluff.

I feel responsible to make something original as a Japanese artist. There are lots of singers and guitarists, but I feel that on stage it's meaningless to copy something someone has done before.

It's a misconception that all singers need to portray a messed up, dirty look to prove their identity.

I wouldn't really call myself a Jazz singer I think it's offending to real Jazz singers to call me a Jazz singer.

The reason my voice is sounding more passionate is because I'm singing directly from the heart.

Singing is just another outlet to express what I feel and to show everyone who I really am. I really don't talk about my personal life that much in interviews because that's my life, but with music, the way I write explains who I am.

Singing isn't always about being on key; it's about emotionality.

In singing, you cannot 'cheat' if you want to give emotions to those who are listening. You must have something to tell.

All I'm really good at is making music and singing and doing this. I'm not good at fashion, so I don't see a point in trying to be good at that.

There will always be some kid who's the new Kurt Cobain writing great lyrics and singing from his soul. The problem is they're not marketing that anymore or putting it out there.

I'd rather be dead than singing 'Satisfaction' when I'm forty-five.

Even though I'm still doing the singing entrances, with promos and backstages, I was being me as a performer.

I was always singing the way I felt, and maybe I didn't exactly know it, but I just didn't like the way things were down there-in Mississippi.