Top 30 Jon Bellion Quotes

You grow up listening to Eminem; your parents don’t let you listen to it – you gotta sneak into a car to listen to this guy rap. He changed my whole life, my whole perspective on music, so to more or less co-sign something that I’ve done is the ultimate childhood goal.

I’m born and raised Long Island. Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Ben Gibbard – melody-driven guys… They shaped me, molded my music.

I used to work at a catering hall in Hauppauge. Anybody who works as a server in a catering hall, more power to you, but I wanted to make music.

As long as I don’t have to go back to the catering hall and wait tables anymore, I’m very happy.

I grew up on Dilla, Timbaland, Pharrell, all these drums that are super pocketed, so all those influences come out on a song like ‘Ungrateful Eyes,’ with all the crazy drum swing.

I just never really though you could or couldn’t listen to a certain type of music.

Originally, ‘The Monster’ started out as this indie, Florence And The Machine, tribal-y, almost Spanish-esque dance record.

Sometimes, people will fight over five, six percent, because if it’s a smash record, that can mean a lot of money. I don’t really care.

When you get a song placed with two of the top stars in the world, like Rihanna and Eminem, especially as a new writer, they’re gonna take a huge chunk of your publishing. That’s just the way the business is. I’m not complaining.

I wanna make music; that’s all I wanna do.

My artistry is my baby.

I don’t view any of the hits I’ve ever written as the climax of my career. They’re just minor stepping stones.

When I want to get inspired, I’ll put a Pixar movie on silent and listen to Nas.

At the end of the day, we want love, and we want to feel loved.

I think honest lyrics help somebody say, ‘I was struggling with this, but if Jon goes through that, too, and if Jon’s telling me that his life isn’t as good as it seems on his Instagram,’ that helps somebody in their day to day.

The first 12 bars of ‘Pre-Occupied’ explains my entire career.

Rapping was a hobby; when I went to college, there were a ton of dudes rapping. I think that’s where I got my rapping chops up.

I loved everything, but it was Kanye West who really changed everything for me.

I have a fan base eager for more stuff. That makes me more than happy. I know I have an army behind me.

I wrote ‘Monster’ and thought that it would solve a lot of my problems, that I’d have money in the bank, but I felt no different. I was still searching for something.

People don’t realize I make records eight or nine months before they come out. I’m directing the videos; I have a lot of work to do. I’m very involved in all that stuff creatively.

I’d watch Pixar movies for, like, six hours, back-to-back. I’d watch ‘Finding Nemo’ twice a week, back-to-back-to-back, three times in a row.

My brother is 10 years older than me, so whatever he listened to is what I listened to, and it was all rap.

I’m just a product of the ’90s, to be honest.

Sometimes I feel drawn to writing about my shortcomings because I’m chock full of them.

You can’t really force kids to like music. I’m a firm believer in an organic fan base.

The way Ben Gibbard paints a picture, you feel like, ‘I was there that day with him.’ You really feel the way he paints pictures and speaks and talks. It’s almost like talk-singing. Paul Simon does that very well as well. He’s a huge influence of mine.

If I can show people how vulnerable and how flawed I am, maybe others will relate.

A lot of the album ‘The Definition’ was made from two things: Pixar movies and J. Dilla.

I think some of the best music throughout the actual history of music itself came from cultures where they’re not really looking for outside themes. It’s developed from their hometowns – it’s what they love and what they love to do.