I grew up in a racially mixed neighborhood. So going over to friends’ houses for dinner, their parents listened to Al Green and Luther Ingram. It was something that hit me early on, the feeling that came across.
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
I think that’s why Sturgill and I worked so well together. We came from similar backgrounds as far as a sense of place. We were surrounded by the same culture. We listened to a lot of the same music growing up.
Wherever you’re from, you adapt to your environment. It definitely made my music a little bit more explicit. Because I really was in North Philly, I listened to State Property and stuff. Everything my dad listened to, I listened to.
I’ve probably listened to ‘Try Me’ by DeJ Loaf 500 times. It’s a little slower than your typical strut BPM, but it still works.
Because of John Williams, I began collecting all kinds of film scores. I listened to them when I fell asleep, and it was through my obsessive listening that I learned what all the different parts of the orchestra were. I learnt a great deal from him by just simply listening.
For creating the Texan accent, I would listen to Sissy Spacek and watch her in ‘Badlands.’ I downloaded the audio of that whole film and listened to that.
I do – very specifically, I remember Bessie Smith; I used to collect 78 records that I would buy from the St Vincent de Paul store at five cents apiece, and I did this indiscriminately. I would just take whatever was there. And I listened to Patti Page and Walter Huston, ‘September Song.’
Elvis was a way bigger influence than Waylon Jennings, but you don’t wanna tell people, ‘I never really listened to Waylon.’
I was lucky enough to grow up in a house where we listened to all kinds of music. We listened to Haitian, hip hop, soul, classical jazz, gospel and Cuban music, to name a few. When you have access to that as a child, it just opens up your world.
There are many benefits to this process of listening. The first is that good listeners are created as people feel listened to. Listening is a reciprocal process – we become more attentive to others if they have attended to us.
Don’t be afraid to be who you really are. Enjoy it and don’t take it and yourself so seriously. I probably wouldn’t have listened, but if I did, I would have saved myself some heartache along the way.
I’ve always listened to different styles of music to make sure I’m balanced. I feel like if you only listen to your type of music you can never go outside of it.
I was talking to my spiritual advisor. I got a letter from somebody who said that they were about to kill themselves, but they listened to a song of mine and it saved their lives.
The unhappy people are those who listen to others. I never listened to anyone, and I’m very happy.
My whole life, I’ve sung and listened to music, and since the beginning, I’ve had iTunes and used Apple Music for streaming.
I was this little blond girl with a guitar case bigger than me – it was pink and sparkly at the time. But I always took myself seriously, and I think that people took that seriously. I would tell them about my goal list, and they listened. I was like, ‘I want to be the one that swings the pendulum.’
I actually got to write with one of my musical heroes, a guy named Raine Maida from Our Lady Peace. I got to sit down and write some songs with him, and that was pretty heavy. I listened to Our Lady Peace growing up. It got me through the teenage angst.
The Arabic world was very interesting in the 1920s to ’60s: there was something booming culturally, and I found my culture very desirable when I listened to these songs.
The lion’s share of what I listened to in the Eighties, what really affected me, was coming from Britain.
As I’ve got older, I’ve become more intrigued about formations, tactics, I listen a lot more to the manager’s team talk; as a kid, if I’m honest, I never listened.
Many of us believe that we need health care reform. That being said – Americans felt like they weren’t being listened to. There were a lot of people across the political spectrum who said we don’t want a one-size-fits-all healthcare plan.
The doctor I would want for myself or for anyone else I cared about would be one who understands that disease is more than just a clinical entity; it is an experience and a metaphor, with a message that must be listened to.
If you want to be listened to, the first step is to listen well yourself.
I’ve listened to female vocalists my whole life. That’s what I love. I still listen to guys’ vocals and don’t get taken aback a lot.
People have a huge desire to be listened to, for politicians to take the time to understand their problems.
As I became an adult, I listened to a lot of jazz, to the ladies of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen McRae and Nina Simone. I loved that they each covered the same songs and interpreted them totally differently. I thought that was so cool. They could each paint their own picture of that moment.
Oh, I was a real Nirvana kid. I got into jazz because I listened to a lot of metal, Megadeth and that, and those guys play really fast and are virtuosos. I wanted to learn more about it, and I discovered that a lot of jazz guys played really fast, too.
I was the overweight kid who didn’t have a boyfriend. I listened to other people say, ‘You’re ugly, you’re fat, you’re stupid,’ and I believed it.
I’ve never had a very quiet voice. I tried in choir to make it smaller, and it just didn’t work out. And I listened to a lot of soul music when I was growing up on my own accord. But I was mostly into Mama Cass and Gladys Knight, and they all had big voices too; just different than mine.
If I would have listened to other people back in 2000 telling me I should have stopped playing basketball because of a kidney disease, I wouldn’t have won a world championship.
If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
Back then people closed their eyes and listened to music. Today there’s a lot of images that go with the music. A lot of music is crap and it’s all commercial and the images are all trying to sell the record.
I had grown up during a time when Notre Dame football was held in the highest esteem. I listened to all of the games on the radio.
The first music I ever got into was the ’80s alternative bands that my brother listened to, like The Cure and The Smiths and R.E.M. and Fugazi. I can remember specifically saying The Cure was my favorite band back in second grade.
I am still into the people I listened to growing up, so I completely remember what is like to be a fan, I haven’t changed.
I listened to a lot of Bob Dylan songs to see how he works. I’ve gotten into writing story-songs.
If anyone has listened to my stuff over the years, they know I tend not to do the same thing twice.
When I think about putting together an album, the process of listening to hundreds of songs each time and picking out the best 10 or so that will go on the record, it really sinks in as to just how many songs I’ve listened to all these years.
I wasn’t the biggest hip-hop fan, because I had to listen to whatever my parents listened to, so growing up, it was a lot of Dolly Parton, Elvis, and Whitney Houston. When they finally put a TV in my room and I got to listen to MTV Jams I was like: ‘Here I am!’
I’d listened to my colleagues in the teachers’ lunchroom. I could tell they were passionate, fired-up people who had great ideas for strategies and projects to help kids learn better. They just didn’t have the resources. I was frustrated, but I also knew it was a frustration felt by teachers all over the city.
I listened to a lot of what my grandparents listened to: George Jones, Johnny Cash – a lot of old country singers. Patsy Cline.
I had a beautiful childhood and a lovely childhood. I just didn’t like being a child. I didn’t like the rank injustice of not being listened to. I didn’t like the lack of autonomy.
Opera is one of the most important art forms. It should be listened to and appreciated by everyone.
My younger brother Avishai was my first influence. He picked up the trumpet, and I listened to him. The way he played – with the half valves and the smears – made me want to play like him.
It’s true that when I was younger and I first got interested in music, I used to read books about the Stones and the Beatles and how they listened to Muddy Waters and people like that when they were starting out, who are much less well known now than the Rolling Stones. The Stones really changed blues.
I did ‘I’d Do Anything,’ and then a play and then ‘A Little Light Music.’ I played jazz in a night club where nobody listened to me for two years. I sold cereal in a market for a while. I worked in a clothes shop in Brixton. But that’s the life of an actor. You never really know when your next job is coming.
One of the best things I get to do is meet people that have been to the shows and listened to the music. I still don’t indulge in the social media side of things, so that’s my way of starting conversations – actually hearing people talk.
If we prove capable of showing a pioneering commitment, we shall create a commmunity listened to around the world.
