The star, the person who’s on the mic, always gets seen.
I wanna be able to stand on the stage and hold out the mic and people sing all the lyrics to my song.
On the microphone, I’m not scared to step up and say, ‘This is my ability, this is how good I am.’ In other areas of life, I’m not so confident; I’m still adjusting to the photo shoots, all that stuff. But behind the mic, I’m fully confident.
My dad got me the same mic I use on everything now – this $200 mic from Guitar Center.
We were gradually playing larger venues and in the early days PA systems were kind of non-existent. So to play loud, we had to use louder equipment. The PA systems back then didn’t mic the instruments – only the vocals.
At the age of 11 I did my first open mic show, and it was one of those lightning-bolt moments where I suddenly found what I wanted to do.
I play Rock Band, which is Guitar Hero times ten. You can play with four people, so when you have parties, you have a real band. Nobody ever wants to sing, so I’m always the one throwing down on the mic.
My first song was ‘So Sick,’ which was my first number one as an artist, and I turned the mic around to the crowd, and they sang the whole song. Every lyric. That was my first experience with the power of music.
Enterprising law-enforcement officers with a warrant can flick a distant switch and turn a standard mobile phone into a roving mic or eavesdrop on occupants of cars equipped with travel assistance systems.
I’m a news junkie. I generally ad lib it. I find a story I want to key off on, open the mic, drag it in the Dropbox, and they pull it out the next morning.
The WWE has the largest amount of eyes on it and is the biggest wrestling company in the world. It would be a huge honor for myself to work there, but am I going to be given the same ‘Villain’ mic time?
My older sister was into grime, so she got me into it. When I was ten, I begged her to take me to my first house party, where there were decks and a mic. I ended up falling asleep standing up in the corner.
After discovering the Ramones, I discovered really crude ways to multi-track by taking another cassette recorder and plugging that into the eight-track, playing it back, so that as I was recording with the mic in my guitar, I could have another cassette player I had recorded on feeding into the recording.
I bought an audio technician mic and Pro Tools SE, the demo version and was recording in the basement.
I’m all about showing people what I can really do in country music. Give me a mic and let me perform, and I’ll prove it to you.
When I worked with Jermaine Dupri for his label, he would have So So Def parties and he’d tell me, ‘Yo, go on get this thing started.’ I had to go get on the mic and get people turnt up. I mean, I don’t want to be that turnt up guy all the time. It’s part of my job so I do what I gotta do.
Though I’m not a huge fan of The Rock, I admit that I am a fan of the fact that he does his own thing. He gets excited on the mic. He yells. He didn’t listen to what people told him to do, and people responded to that.
I was born with a mic in my hand.
While a lot of hip-hop was inspired by jazz or James Brown samples and was made to be played live in the clubs, I made hip-hop that was made for MCs to eat the mic up. It was an aggressive form of hip-hop. It was made just for hip-hop. It’s not made to sing or dance to, though you can if you want.
I auditioned for Robert Redford once and I was so starstruck I couldn’t even speak. I had a mic wire at a screen test clipped to me and then I got kind of nervous and I paced in a circle and then took a step and tripped and fell on my face. You just have to forgive yourself and keep going on.
I did a sitcom with Desi Arnaz Jr. in a pilot called ‘Whacked Out.’ We were bombing, and Lucille Ball grabbed the mic and started berating the audience.
Especially watching him struggle, cause I was with him when he was struggling – changed his name to The Rock, all of a sudden he has the attitude a little bit, he started getting the mic, started cutting promos. His character just developed.
I actually like to sing on ‘Rock Band.’ I prefer to take the mic.
I’m really articulate when I do my thing – when I speak on the mic, when I do interviews. I’m a colorful personality.
I can always improve in the ring; I can improve on the mic. I can consistently keep improving.
When we first started making videos, we didn’t have a boom mic, so we had to talk really loud. And then we got a boom mic and were like, ‘Wow, we’re shouting,’ and had to learn to bring it back.
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time writing, acting, and making films. Because I’m doing all this extra writing, acting, and creating short comedy skits with my friends in improv shows, I feel like that’s really filled out my confidence on the mic.
I did so many open mics. I would write jokes on Twitter constantly, and then slowly, over time, open mics turned into shows. If you can get a joke to work at an open mic, it’s a good joke.
If I’m not in the theatre, I’m in an open mic night or doing a guest set at the Comedy Club, or whatever, just trying to develop stuff.
One time, it was really funny, I was going on stage… and they were like, ‘Oh, we didn’t mic the puppet! Mic the puppet!’ So, that’s how I know that sometimes I do a very good job, because they think that the puppet is actually, like, real.
It’s nice to work with people who know how to mic drums right and how to record properly. But there’s something to be said for doing it yourself.
In the metal world, if you’re using a wireless mic… I was so scared to do that. I’m, like, ‘They’re gonna boo me in the beginning.’
I’m not going to lie. I’d love to have the mic in my hand opposite of Dixie Carter in the ring and say my piece, say what’s on my mind. And if she’s willing to sit there and listen to it, I think it could make for some great television.
I’m not an amazing engineer; I’m just super basic. I’m pretty cavalier about it – I stick the mic wherever it sounds good.
I’d like to manage someone, a young talent that maybe doesn’t have the mic skills.
Lars Sullivan and EC3 are made for the main roster, more so than NXT. Obviously, Lars because he’s just freakish in so many ways. But EC3, I look at him, and I look at his mannerisms, his mic skills: he’s tailor-made for a good push on the main roster.
If you give a bipolar man a mic, I don’t know what you expect.
I’ve already done enough to prove myself. Win or lose, I think I’ve done enough to cement my name in the history of this sport. So for me, it’s more like I have to win just for an opportunity to get on the mic and say all that.
Cena is awesome on the mic. When it comes to wrestling in the ring and the technical aspect, I feel as if I blow him away. I feel like I’m more of an athlete.
As an artist, I want it to be so simple that anyone can understand it. No matter what age you are, you’re going to feel it because it’s real. I don’t like to sugar coat. There’s not too many artists that can tell stories and be vulnerable on the mic.
Like for ‘Black Nails,’ I just had black nails – and I never have black nails. It was my first and last time getting black nails. And that’s so not normal for me. So when you’re recording, you’re up at the mic and you gotta name the file, so I just look down and I’m like, ‘Black Nails!’ That’s literally what it was.
I’d like to say I’m R&B’s savior. Whether that’s the truth or not, I’m definitely going out there with my mic and my shield to declare, ‘I am here to save R&B.’ I will have the people saying, ‘Sir, there is a man at the musical gates saying he is here to save R&B.’
We don’t live in an ancient era. Today, collaboration doesn’t mean two singers standing next to each other at the mic to sing together.
I spent two years playing open mic nights in Brighton, and I heard more and more people saying, ‘You should give it a go in London.’
I go to more open mic nights than open mikers.
I advise wannabe singers to form a band, practise in your garage if you have to, but do as many charity or open mic shows as possible to get experience. I sang for seven years before getting a record deal, and I was already loving what I was doing. I just got lucky and got discovered.
WWE is very good at doing things that are advantageous. If you have the ability to go out there and get on a mic and be captivating, then they’re going to do everything in their power to support that ability and make it even bigger and seem better.
When you’re literally staring at the person right in front of you, you’re connecting with them on a personal level. I even jump into the crowd sometimes and perform with them, sing into the mic with them and share the experience with them.
When Labour leadership challenger Jess Phillips urged men to ‘pass the mic’ to a woman on the top job, telling Sky’s Sophy Ridge it would ‘look bad’ if Labour failed to elect a woman, she more or less admitted not being up to the job.
There is nothing cooler than to have them singing your words back to you. The last show I did, I was kind of nervous about putting the mic out there, because you’re not sure how it’s going to go. But I did, and they sang the whole chorus. I thought, ‘Holy crap! That is the coolest feeling.’ It’s the biggest rush ever.
My live sound does not work in the studio, which is a completely different animal. Every little thing is detrimental to the sound. And if someone moves a mic, you’ve lost it. It’s pretty much a case of ‘lock the door and set up a police line.’
