My mom listened to a lot of house music. My dad listened to a lot of roots and dub. I’ve got a lot of bass. It’s been in my whole life.
I just went to your typical public schools, and my dad would take us to the movies every week, or he’d buy scalped tickets to San Antonio Spurs games. I remember I was four or five years old and my parents, who were very young, took us to see The Police in Austin, and Iggy Pop opened.
My dad said to me growing up: ‘When all is said and done, if you can count all your true friends on one hand, you’re a lucky man.’
My childhood memories are filled with hugs and kisses from both my mum and dad. My mum has a thing about kissing you an odd number of times: if she kisses you once, all good, but if she kisses you twice, then you know another one has to follow and, weirdly, she tends to go for the forehead.
I think the best of us comes when we are working together collectively. And it doesn’t mean that we can’t disagree. We’ve got to learn, as Dad taught us, to disagree without being disagreeable.
When my dad died, I had to go to therapy.
I grew up speaking Korean, but my dad spoke English very well. I learned a lot of how to speak English by watching television.
In 1881, my dad’s grandparents, who were Norwegian farmers, immigrated to the United States – the same year my great grandfather from Laguna Pueblo was put on a train to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.
My dad never graduated high school. He was a printing salesman. We lived in a two-bedroom, one-bath house in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. We weren’t rich – but we felt secure.
My dad encouraged us to fail. Growing up, he would ask us what we failed at that week. If we didn’t have something, he would be disappointed. It changed my mindset at an early age that failure is not the outcome, failure is not trying. Don’t be afraid to fail.
My love for American music and American movies is from an early age. I was 10 or 11 when I heard Fats Domino and Little Richard and Buddy Holly. And the movies, my dad used to take my brother and I to the movies every Friday. It was incredible: we got to see just about every movie that came out for a period of years.
‘Dirt On My Boots’ is a very different song. I heard the melody, and I heard the lyrics, and I heard the drive of that song. I totally related. It was kinda me when I was on my bulldozer working for my dad.
My dad got me the same mic I use on everything now – this $200 mic from Guitar Center.
When I was 14, in Cuba, I met Fidel Castro with my dad, and it was really impressive. And on a totally different level, I met Justin Timberlake!
I feel lazy when I’m not working. I learned all my business sense from my dad. He always believed in me, and I think the last thing he said to me before he passed away was, ‘I know you’re gonna be OK. I’m not worried about you’.
I don’t know that I’ve ever looked at baseball like a purely casual fan. That’s just realistic when you grow up with it putting food on your table, and with it taking your dad out of town.
I grew up in Shropshire, but I was born in Wales. There was a hospital seven miles away, but my dad drove 45 miles over the Welsh border so I could play rugby for Wales. But as a skinny asthmatic, I was only ever good at swimming.
My dad is a civil engineer, and my mom is a stay-at-home mom. The fact that my parents weren’t really involved in music was kind of good, because it meant that I had something that was private and personal.
It is impossible to please all the world and one’s father.
I love playing guitar. I grew up with my dad playing. But acting is definitely the forefront, I guess I’d say, in terms of career and something that I really enjoy and feel lucky to be able to do.
I wanted to take up music, so my father bought me a blunt instrument. He told me to knock myself out.
My dad is a preacher. Growing up, I went to church every time the doors were open.
I’m lucky because I remember my dad showing me ‘Independence Day,’ and I loved it.
Whenever I fail as a father or husband… a toy and a diamond always works.
I’m finally my dad’s favourite because Kevin Costner is playing him.
My heroes always are mostly my parents – my father especially, and my mom, who’s passed on already. My dad is a very strong man, and by him being educated, and a principal and school superintendent over 37 years, he plays such a big role in my life.
Being a pastor’s kid comes with a lot of pressure and scrutiny. A lot of my dad’s sermons were about respect. It was a beautiful way to be taught about love and two people being equal.
My Father had a profound influence on me. He was a lunatic.
Growing up in Luton, we’d always eat on a cloth, placed on the floor of the living room, with no TV allowed. There were no chairs back in Bangladesh and Dad wanted to keep the tradition, so we never owned a dining table.
There was nothing more I wanted to do than to see my dad react well to my music. I still do. I send him my demos all the time.
I love all my fam. I have quite possibly the best dad, mom, and sister in the world.
Growing up, my dad owned a restaurant in Washington, DC, and food was something I was passionate about. But when I finally got into it, I felt like it was so late in the game; that’s why I worked seven days a week at Craft and Mercer Kitchen. I wanted to see how far I could take it.
My father and I have a very good relationship. We always got along. But I always scold him.
I grew up in Edinburgh, but my dad’s from Glasgow, and my mum’s from Chingford in Essex, and I spent time in Ireland, too, so I was always somebody who absorbed accents. I would come back from visits, very much to the annoyance of friends and family, with an accent based on where I’d been.
Now I see other kids and their parents, and I compare them to my dad. Our dad was a really normal father when he was with us. We would get grounded if we did something bad. He would ground us. He wouldn’t call it grounding; he’d just say, ‘You’re on punishment.’ Sometimes we’d be on punishment a lot.
My dad is a phenomenal skier.
My dad always made a big thing about having well-cut suits. It’s partly a cultural thing, but for him, looking sharp and presenting yourself well was very, very important.
Undeservedly you will atone for the sins of your fathers.
My father had a real short fuse. He had a tough life – had to support his mother and brother at a very young age when his dad’s farm collapsed. You could see his suffering, his terrible suffering, living a life that was disappointing and looking for another one. My father was full of terrifying anger.
One of my insecurities was my looks. I was short, cute and chubby, and Dad used to call me his ‘little fat sausage.’ But I always knew I had musical talent.
My parents are very hard working people who did everything they could for their children. I have two brothers and they worked dog hard to give us an education and provide us with the most comfortable life possible. My dad provided for his family daily. So, yes, that is definitely in my DNA.
It was so weird that I would end up directing ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played,’ because, y’know, I’m not a big golfer myself. But I grew up around the game. My mom and dad kind of built their dream house off the 11th fairway of Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth.
A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.
Mum is a photographer, and Dad does world music and plays almost every instrument except for drums.
Love and fear. Everything the father of a family says must inspire one or the other.
My dad was a theater actor, so he had an agent, and he brought me into his agency when I was maybe four years old. That was how I started. I started modeling, and it progressed from there.
Okay, fluoride in the water to help our teeth. Well, shouldn’t that be the job of your mom and dad? To teach you how to brush your teeth and use mouth wash? What do we need the government to do it for? Clearly, what a scam. Fluoride in the water.
Father or stepfather – those are just titles to me. They don’t mean anything.
I hope I am remembered by my children as a good father.
My grandfather, along with Carnegie, was a pioneer in philanthropy, which my father then practiced on a very large scale.
My dad wouldn’t buy me tight pants. I had to get my own money to buy them.
I grew up with the Highwaymen, which was Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. Mom and Dad rode rodeo, so country music was always in the house and the car. They threw in some Dolly Parton, too.
My dad’s name is Vernon and my mom liked the initials, V. V. My sisters and I got named Victoria, Valerie and Vincent so we’d be V. V.’s, too. But, then when you start getting pets’ names that start with a ‘v,’ it’s a little embarrassing.
I happily went on holiday with my parents until I was 18, because we always had such a good time that I didn’t want to venture off and do my own thing. I have very fond memories of those holidays with my brother, mum, and dad.
The whole thing for me is that I did ‘Full House’ and ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos,’ and I look like a dentist, and I’m a dad. Being known as a dirty comedian turned into this weird thing. It’s people’s image of me.
I went off to Harvard Law School for six weeks, and then I said, ‘Doggone this, it’s not what I want to do.’ I remember when I told my dad I was leaving law school, and I wanted to go into football. He said, ‘Be a good coach.’
