Top 55 Philip Bailey Quotes

Everything repeats itself. There ain’t but so many notes on the scale, there ain’t but so many chord changes, for real, and there ain’t but so many beats. So things come back to you a different way. Don’t matter what they call it.

The music has allowed me to see the world, make a lot of friends and learn a lot about life.

At an early age, I understood music… the rhyme schemes, melodies and harmonies.

I’ve been really fortunate. I haven’t had any issues with my voice.

Being a musician was not my choice; it was really a God-ordained thing, so I’m still passionately chasing after the pursuit of that whole journey and musical expression and discovery.

God had always been beckoning me. Early on as a kid, I just felt a strange and close connection with the Divine and then later on it became a more personal thing through my Christian witnesses, people in my life who got a chance to talk to me, bring me to the knowledge of Jesus.

I am a big gospel guy myself and I listen to a lot to gospel music. It inspires me. It encourages me. It uplifts me.

It’s really sad that you have more infomercials on TV to adopt a dog or a cat, or save a whale, then you do millions of flesh and blood human beings.

Music was the thing that caught my soul’s attention from the earliest I can ever remember.

The music departments in the public school system gave me a really extraordinary foundation and music appreciation that I still draw from, even today.

My career would not exist if not for the arts in the schools when I grew up.

Fellowshipping really is about loving all people of like mind, affirming your faith in that relationship.

Life can be very challenging. But I’ve always believed that God is always in control, even when you are going through challenges. Nothing catches him by surprise. It’s all part of his plan. I rely on that even during the toughest of times.

Music is a very strong force when it comes to making a difference, as well as entertaining, soothing, and encouraging.

You just hope to do music that people will embrace… music that will be cutting edge and will be recognized.

I call Earth, Wind & Fire my day job and my solo career my night gig.

I try to watch what I eat and not go overly crazy. I listen to my body, and am grateful for the blessings of God for my health and strength.

I didn’t want just a squeaky-clean book that just illuminated my stardom. For me, that would just be such a waste of time. I wanted my book to reflect real life – the highs and lows.

Christian songs are more my personal testimony. I don’t say things I don’t believe in on secular records, but I am going for the hit record.

I love the clothes, I love the discipline. It’s all encompassing. You play golf for two hours and you feel like you went on a two-hour vacation. It’s like meditation.

I’ve been in the mix of great projects for such a long time, I know what it takes.

Because of my register, Miles Davis’ trumpet playing has always been a big influence on my singing. I’ve always been intrigued by the way he can start anywhere and make it right.

People don’t want classic bands to sound anything other than classic.

When I was 9 years old, growing up in Denver in the 1960s, I’d spend hours listening to my friend’s mother’s record collection.

I try to have to different experiences with different people and energies and do things that will challenge me.

When we came up, Clive Davis and other record execs would do anything to keep Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, even Johnny Mathis intact, because they wanted to keep alive a musical legacy. As a result, those artists were able to spend 30 to 40 years in the business and still make a living, still have a fan base.

Sampling has definitely introduced the music to younger generations – helped the music evolve and kept it relevant.

I loved the title of ‘Blue in Green’ – as if the color blue was seeping into green, slowly changing it and creating a new color.

It used to be that Denver was one of the most stressful cities to play because I was very nervous at coming home.

When you see one of your kids really has a gift, you can’t fight it, because you start to understand what a blessing it’s been to you.

We never overthought the message aspect of Earth, Wind & Fire. We pretty much were all raised the same… We just wanted to contribute positivity in our music and humanity.

When I’m on the road I get to read, play golf and do what I love to do – play music. Not a bad life.

I’m an espresso junkie.

I think that there are some fantastic musicians out there – very, very talented musicians.

You’re always discovering other things you’re capable of doing if you’re out their singing. I just try to stay open to learning more things as the voice expands and grows.

A lot of us have classical and jazz training, and it would be hard for us to work with a hip-hop artist who doesn’t know a lot about the technical aspects of music. But when you listen to Wyclef’s records, you hear bridges, chord changes and real structure. You can tell he has big ears.

You have to refresh yourself with anything that you do all the time and re-tweak it, so the level of integrity associated with what people have learned to love is still the same. And so we don’t get bored and fall asleep.

At the height of Earth, Wind & Fire’s success, I felt an emptiness and void. I studied lots of philosophies and cults and I prayed to God. God made it plain that Jesus Christ died for my sins.

Relationships are so complicated, and anything but perfect.

I mean, I strive every day, man, to just be the best that I can be.

Jazz has always been my first love. It has this timeless effect on me. It’s pretty odd that I didn’t become a jazz musician. I went another way because I needed to earn a good living to support my large family.

We’re very privileged to collaborate with people to keep ourselves fresh and it gives us a shot in the arm to do things a different way.

There was never anything in particular that led me to music. Music is in my DNA.

You can get jaded in the music business, but I have so much passion, and I try to do music with different people to ‘reset.’

The first time I heard a professional jazz quartet practicing in a house down the street it was almost like an out-of-body experience.

I’ll Uber to who has the best expressos, and I’ll take my iPad and go get a coffee… It’s really given the touring situation a whole other layer of enjoyment.

Well, for Earth, Wind & Fire, we would often say that the band was more dynamic live than on record.

We all have things in which we look back and say, ‘If I had a chance to do it all over again, I wouldn’t do certain things.’

In the group setting, I had a role to play, it was like being on a team. In a solo setting I’m forced to pull out all the stops.

It wasn’t an instant success. It wasn’t like I got into Earth, Wind & Fire and we stopped eating oatmeal and McDonald’s. But it was definitely a clear path on the right direction to be my own man.

Rhythm, melody, message, that’s what matters. Our main concern coming out of the gate is to make sure those foundations are strong, the songs are speaking to us. Everything else, horns and strings, is sweetening.

As young musicians, we cut our teeth on doing gigs at clubs and functions and colleges. That was really the proving ground for young musicians, learning songs, doing covers of different songs that were popular, learning different genres of music.

Interestingly enough Miles Davis was an influence, and the way he approached harmonics. And one of my biggest influences was Dionne Warwick, early Dionne Warwick.

If you get the basics right, you can freshen things up, you don’t want to just regurgitate the past. But we gotta stay true to our historic selves.

I really like electronic stuff. I was enamored with that whole genre of music.