Words matter. These are the best Rag’n’Bone Man Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
There are really three parts to the album, and there’s, like, quite a lot of hip-hop on there. I guess it is a worry that people who love ‘Human’ might think they’re buying the album and that’s a blueprint for it, but it’s definitely not. Hopefully they’ll be pleasantly surprised.
I used to go round to my granddad’s house on a Saturday morning, and we’d sit and eat our porridge and watch re-runs of ‘Steptoe and Son’ on BBC Two. I thought it was hilarious – and Rag ‘N’ Bone Man sounded like a blues name to me. It reminded me of people like Sonny Boy Williamson and Big Mama Thornton.
I did Jools Holland, which was bonkers because it’s an institution, and as a family, we’ve all been into it our whole lives, and then I did Hootenanny. I took my mum and dad along, and they were sat there next to Gregory Porter and Chaka Khan. My dad was just laughing, like he couldn’t believe it was real.
I think there’s an attitude these days that you can go straight from a studio to the stage, and it isn’t really like that. But playing live was the most important thing for me at the start because whenever I recorded something, it didn’t sound right; I didn’t like how my voice sounded. It was just raw.
I had some really early recordings when I was 16 or 17. I was rapping over jungle beats with my friends. We used to do pirate radio stations in my area, down near Brighton. They were pretty terrible.
If someone asked if I I’d want no one to recognise me anymore, I’d take that option, I think.
I wanted to write songs from the ground up, I wanted to sit at a piano and build around that. But I still have a lot of love for hip-hop, so I want to do more collaborations in that sense.
I do have a problem with someone that just wants a picture. People who ask for a selfie and don’t even say hello to you, it’s a weird thing that’s happened in the last few years.
I’ve been writing a lot more folky, country type stuff. One of the reasons I wanted to write in the first place was because of Darrell Scott.
Me and my dad used to go to these jam sessions and open mic nights, but I was always scared of singing on stage. It felt different to rapping – more pressured.
I don’t mind being recognised, as long as people are nice. I do like meeting people; it’s just that some people are a bit disrespectful… Sometimes it’s like, I’m having a roast dinner, and someone’s taking a picture of me. I don’t mind taking pictures, but just ask. Otherwise, it’s a bit weird.
Rag ‘N’ Bone Man is for everybody, like Wu Tang is for the children.
I like the dirty venues better – Brixton Jams is like home.
It’s a weird thing, beards now. I’ll be in east London, and lads come up to me: ‘Yo man, what beard oil do you use?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ It’s just laziness.
Close to my heart is Muddy Waters. I love the way he sang. It was almost like a bark. It was like the bark of a dog: it’s not fancy. Sometimes it’s not like singing; it’s like shouting.
I grew up in a little town called Uckfield, and there’s not much to do – so we used to fight a lot. I was never in serious trouble, but we used to have the local bobby round the house saying, ‘Rory’s been up to this again.’
People are obsessed by pictures these days. They just want to say they met someone, have the evidence.
I don’t really like to stand in one spot. People say that you have your lane or a certain type of music. I don’t believe that. You choose your own lane, whichever one you want, then the people decide whether it’s good or not.
When I was 15, I wanted to be a jungle MC. Everybody I knew wanted to be Stevie Hyper D or Skibadee or whatever.
I’m new to a lot of people, and I don’t think anyone wants to listen to 16 tracks of a new artist.
