It’s always been my goal to have backing singers.
I am inspired by all kinds of players and singers.
It often seemed like we had become a nation where the only heroes were rock singers and ball players and that there were no large men of probity who could be called upon for the task.
I want to literally quit drag and go live in the woods somewhere and write music for my favorite female singers, like Miley Cyrus or Kacey Musgraves. I would love to be able to write music for them and hear these women I admire sing my songs. That would be like doing drag without having to get into drag myself.
I think, as singers and performers, we are ambassadors of the human experience. I don’t want to get bored just talking about myself.
I love Chris Brown. He’s a superstar. He’s one of the best singers out there.
In Malaysia, we have a lot of divas, like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey singers. And they were all so so talented, just very talented. For example, there’s this one jazz singer, her name is Sheila Majid, and I was always singing her songs.
I was 25 myself once. I also thought I knew everything. I also thought that I could give singers singing advice and comics comedy advice. When you’re that age, you know it all, so I understand it. But when you’re tired and you don’t have patience for it, you definitely snap.
You know, the funny thing was that I grew up listening to, like Whitney Houston and Cece Winans, and a lot of American singers.
Singers like her, Patti, Tina Turner, I revere them when I’m in their presence.
We have such fantastic talent in India, and there are some great Marathi singers, great sound producers, great sound engineers, and a great breed of lyric writers. But the problem is that you need a platform.
I’m a mad fan of American guitarist Ry Cooder and he made a record using Mexican musicians, but with American soul singers doing the backing. It opened my eyes to the fact that the Mexicans played very differently.
Most singers have their idols. I remember Elvis Presley when I was a kid. When I was about sixteen, I always said I wanted to do ‘Love Me Tender.’
Hanson is not the pop band that a lot of people think we are. I think we’re a lot more rooted in a lot of music history… we’re songwriters, we’re singers, we’re players first. We’re not entertainers, we’re not celebrities, and frankly, we don’t really want to be.
My favorite singers in the world have been black singers, and you can go to any church and hear the best singers in the world – and I’m a singer, and I love singing!
I’ve grown from being around other singers. I’ve learned not to be afraid. A part of that is from writing my own songs and discovering how to tell my own story properly.
It was my contention that opera can not only pay for itself if it is well given, but it can also command a much wider audience if given like a play with lots of rehearsals and wonderful singers that fit the role.
Johnny Guitar… just one of my favorite singers of all time. I met him when we were both on the road with Johnny Otis in the ’50s when I was a teenager. We traveled the country in a car together. I would hear him sing every night.
I have written for, very fortunately, some great singers from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley.
Oh, man, I love the Staple Singers. I love Pop Staples’ guitar playing, too. He’s one of my favorite guitar players.
The Blossoms were actually the first black background singers that did recording sessions in California, but we had to start giving work away. We just couldn’t do it all.
I wouldn’t really call myself a Jazz singer I think it’s offending to real Jazz singers to call me a Jazz singer.
I was nearing the end of childhood when I started to pay real attention to jazz singers. Women excelled as jazz singers; they surpassed most of the men. Black women excelled as jazz singers; they surpassed most of the whites.
For me, I’ve written and produced for pop singers, but, like, female pop – I love that. I think it’s putting me in the game that I love girl pop. All my writing is inspired by it.
A lot of what I have always done is do other singers.
In our country, singers are known as the voice of actors.
The singers who are the most honest are the ones who become immortalized.
But I was singing loud, and most singers weren’t singing loud.
I’m always writing something. I’ve got so much stuff, I don’t know what to do with it. Some of it will be Strokes, some of it will be I don’t know what – stuff for pop singers. TV themes. I’ve got a jar stuffed with songs, all these ideas that are just me humming into a recording device.
In the end, yes, I’m the singer of Old Dominion, but we’re a band of great singers and great musicians, and we just respect each other so much.
I usually listen to various kind of singers. Curtis Mayfield was my favorite. James Brown, Tina Turner, queen of soul, I started to get that musical essence from that time before I even do my first song.
I went on tour with Ricky Skaggs and his wife, Sharon White, and the White Family in 2015. It was fantastic. They’re all the greatest singers of that country stuff, traditional country up into bluegrass.
Opera singers, we’re not muscle men; you have to be careful about your work.
My influences in this world have always been Crazy Horse and Malcolm X, my overall influences. But I was influenced by rock n’ roll, blues, and country music. I was influenced by singers.
You hear blacks are good in sports and good singers. But you don’t hear about black lawyers or black politicians. I learned things later, but went through some hurt before I learned – before I had a better picture of black people and a better understanding of myself.
Protest is patriotic. Since the beginning of musical time, American singers and songwriters have used their talent and bully pulpits to show us America’s strengths and shortcomings.
When people are training to become singers, they all have moments when they hit a wall.
I had a ten-piece band when I was 21 years old, the Bruce Springsteen Band. This is just a slightly expanded version of a band I had before I ever signed a record contract. We had singers and horns.
I had been warned by other directors that opera is hell. The singers don’t want to do what you want.
I think soul singers are much better singers than I am.
People in Ireland take in the whole song. After a long history of great singers and songwriters and poets, they are able to consume the entire song – not just the external; they go inside.
