Quotes About Music

For half a century, the Sunset Strip was the asphalt timeline of American popular music. My most distinct memory, from more years ago than I'll confess to, is waiting for a table at the Olde World, which occupied a wedge of territory at Sunset and Holloway Drive, where the daiquiris became more vicious the longer you sat in the sun.

My parents signed me up for classical guitar lessons, which made for two years of the most depressing Wednesday evenings.

My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday evening was the missionary meeting. Tuesday evening was usher board meeting. Wednesday evening was prayer meeting. Thursday evening was visit the sick. Friday evening was choir practice. I mean, and at all those gatherings, we sang.

Music is something I couldn't live without. My dad was into music, he played for pleasure - guitar, piano. I started off doing jazz, singing with a lot of fabulous musicians here in London before I went to the States. And I still take piano lessons every Wednesday.

Once a week i have to do my radio show, 'A State of Trance', usually on Wednesday night. I try to go running at least three times a week and spend at least a day without turning my laptop on and spend it with my wife and daughter.

I'm just a wee, chubby boy that happens to sing songs.

My dad was a singer. Old classic stuff like 'Brown Eyed Girl,' or 'Delilah' if he was getting really dramatic. And there was always a gig. All the men would go out and play, congregate back at our house, and I would be up with them wailing into the wee hours.

When I was a wee baby, if I heard any music, I would just get up in my buggy or my pram and start bobbing around.

I was 16 when I was in a band, for about 10 minutes. I went off and did acting after that. So it was a wee moment for me when I sang.

I've only been blessed with one talent, unfortunately, and that's being able to sing a wee bit.

I always come back to Frank Sinatra. Love some modern stuff - Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar - but give me 'Night and Day' or 'In the Wee Small Hours,' and all is chill.

Every day, you have to make three hours of music, just randomly improvising, and that's a great way to weed stuff out.

The hardest thing, and the most difficult thing, is to do the most simple thing. Because that means that you've had to weed out every other option. I kind of feel like that about a good pop song, too. When it's right, it's perfect, you know?

It took five days to drive to Los Angeles by myself. I listened to Abbey Road for six hours at a time and watched the desert open up before me again and again. I saw the sun set and rise at the Grand Canyon, and I sang out over the cliffs, picked up tumble weeds along the way and threw them in the back of my car.

One of my favorite places I've visited is Havana, Cuba. On my way home from Costa Rica, I did a week in Havana. The colors, the music, the beautiful men and the cars! I love vintage and antique cars and own a couple myself.

I had a band with David Gates. There was just a lot of opportunity at that time. But I left for Los Angeles the week after I graduated high school, and I actually left to try to get into the advertising business. That was really why I went out to L.A. My music career was almost an accident.

When I made 'Real,' I recorded it over the phone in prison. I did it in a week. I had no idea what it was going to sound like. I couldn't even listen to the masters before it came out, I couldn't listen to 90% of the beats. I recorded 21 songs in seven days.

My ambition when I started out was to play two or three gigs a week. And that's what I'm doing.

We got £25 a week in the early Sixties when we were first with Brian Epstein, when we played the clubs.

I'd been sending out demos and CDs for years. I knew my stuff was good enough, but I was getting nowhere. Then, three people - my future manager and two publishers - happened to send one of my tracks to EMI publishing in the same week. All of a sudden, they were interested!

The first time that I came to New York to work properly was the mid-'80s, but I was doing eight shows a week. You have no life. Going to a punk rock club - or whatever the music was at that time - would not have been on my agenda.

My mom thought I could dance because I used to dance to this Janet Jackson song she'd play when I was a baby. Then she would take me to a Saturday dance school. I used to go every week and got spotted by a scout, who suggested I audition for the role of Billy in 'Billy Elliot the Musical.'

I think the whole '2112' album took somewhere around a week to do.

When we signed our deal in 1974, we'd already been together for six years. When they lowered the drinking age in Ontario in 1971 to 18 years, we went from playing two or three high schools in a month to playing clubs two or three times a week.