We always joke that our road crew will have to wheelchair us up onstage soon because this is what we do. This is what we love to do. This is what God put us on earth to do until the day we take our last breath.
What I like about Elvis is the same thing I like about James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince. These guys, back in the day, there was no smoke and mirrors. It was just raw talent. They would step out onstage and command an audience. Talk about awesome.
I can’t play the guitar, so the thoughts of playing one onstage at a festival makes me quiver, but I’ve been blabbering away in front of people since I was a child, so talking for a living isn’t the most daunting thing to do.
I used to go onstage with no makeup on. And then I realised I was looking a little crazy and I had to grow up a bit and look more presentable as a woman.
I’ve gotten to where my hair is like my onstage prop; I need to hide behind it and throw it around – it’s my slo-mo effect.
I’m really vulnerable onstage because it’s just me. I’m not really trying to put up a front or act a certain way.
I can’t just play in a rock band. The National is a great, exciting band to play in. We improvise a lot onstage, and it’s very intense, but after a while, I crave other kinds of experiences.
My wife Juliana and I first saw Eurovision while on our honeymoon in Greece in 2006, and we were amazed by it. They basically recreate a music video onstage, and pyro cannons, LED video screens, background dancers, fireworks, costume changes, and wind machines are their tools.
I really do feel now that the way I dress onstage and for work is a true reflection of my own sense of style as well.
Michael Jackson is the most awesome person who ever walked onstage. He was just incredible.
Now when I step onstage, I have this hour when I can just be completely myself, just a massive ball of energy. Sometimes I get so lost in the performance, people look a little frightened – but that’s a good thing.
I was three years old, and I walked onstage during a performance that my father was a tenor in ‘The Barber of Seville.’ I walked out onstage, and people started laughing and clapping, and that was it. That was all it took. Laughing and clapping, I still enjoy today.
Just the same way I’d say a prayer before going onstage, taking that even further and using the drum to inspire people. And using that as a vehicle for the intention.
I’ve always been really open onstage.
I did not want to go onstage and play Led Zeppelin songs; there has to be more than that. I wanted to create a complete experience of what Led Zeppelin means to me, growing up around them and being part of it all my life.
I laugh all the time – at things, people, stuff, whatever. But, I don’t laugh onstage because then it’s serious business.
I was staying with my sister and messing around with the guitar every day for my own amusement. Then she took me around and introduced me to Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Little Walter, and the first time I saw that onstage, it inspired me to play. I thought that was the world.
I rely on poetry or literature to keep me centered before I go onstage because it reminds me to be present.
Going onstage is like going into battle. You’re ultimately there to win. It’s driven and fuelled by passion and a desire to do it.
I feel powerful when I’m onstage talking to an audience. I like communicating; it feels like my calling in the world. Knowing what you’re meant to be doing with your life is pretty bloody powerful.
To be able to be onstage and to hear people in the audience go, ‘That’s my song!’ It’s amazing.
My wife and I got to go onstage at a Flaming Lips concert at Webster Hall once. We dressed up like Scientology aliens and danced around. We had a shootout onstage with Santa Claus.
Tiesto is legend. I’ve been in the studio many times. We did a tour together; I jumped onstage with him, he jumped onstage with me. Still, every time, I have to pinch myself and realize this is the guy who made me start doing what I’m doing right now.
I don’t use the big video screens that a lot of other artists use because personally, I think it’s kind of a crutch. I think sometimes it’s like watching television as opposed to really getting involved with what is happening onstage and the people in your section.
I had no desire to get up onstage and tell jokes. I prefer to stand next to really funny people.
Every now and then, when I think about it, I think, ‘What would I even talk about onstage?’ It’s never been, ‘I wonder if I’m funny. I wonder if I can come up with jokes.’ It’s more, ‘What would it be like without the leather suit and the anger?’
If you don’t eat properly, it affects your energy level. You are an athlete when you’re onstage. You can’t get tired.
When you’re onstage and the audience is smiling and singing and bopping along and you’re all on the same level, it’s the best feeling in the world. It may sound dumb and corny to say it, but it’s like pure love.
I don’t want to be 70 years old jumping around onstage.
I’m not good enough to be playin’ much acoustic guitar onstage. Man, you gotta get so right; I mean, the tones, the feel, the sound. Plus, acoustic blues guitar is just that much harder on the fingers.
I don’t sit and write stand-up material; I come up with an idea onstage.
Sometimes I’m more true when I’m up onstage than I’m able to be in my regular life. It’s not as exciting to be at home, but I’ve got to learn how to make that work, and then I will be an ordinary woman.
I think sometimes comedians and entertainers and artists, sometimes they get onstage, and it’s all for what they want to do. I think you still need to do stuff for the audience. They’re the ones who are making it possible.
I love getting to be onstage with so many great musicians.
‘Saturday Night Live’ is a very particular beast. What it celebrates are individuals who can stand out. I did good work there, but going onstage and saying, ‘Hey! Hey! Look at me! Aren’t I funny?’ – that just wasn’t my instinct.
Jazz onstage is a very intimate exchange between everybody that’s onstage.
These guys were always saying, ‘The minute you get onstage, it’s great, no matter how much you’re hurting.’ But that didn’t work for me. There were some nights I did not want to get out there.
The first time I got onstage was when I was about 5 years old. It was at a church social, and I had a poem to recite.
When you’re onstage with Chris Rock, anything can happen. He is one of the greatest comic geniuses we’ve ever seen.
Because I killed a guy in real life, and because my character kills a guy onstage, they said I could never do anything this great again. I resented that.
My solo music – I get up onstage, I improvise and it’s my improvisation. When I get up onstage with Fred Frith and Mike Patton, then we’re improvising together. Then it’s not my music; it’s our music.
When I’ve known something is right, the actual doing of it is not scary. It’s like being onstage or performing. After it and before it, there might be a lot of fear, but the act of it is never scary for me.
Being onstage is like being rock star. Whereas if you’re doing a movie, it’s such a confined space. You know, you do a comedy, it’s so hard, too, ’cause with a comedy, there’s no vocal reaction, there’s no energy that you get back that spurs you on to be funnier because everyone has to be quiet.
My favorite comedians are basically themselves onstage.
I was just making music in my bedroom. I never wanted to be onstage.
Sometimes I get a little drunk, sometimes I get a little out of it, sometimes I get out of tune onstage, but that’s something that shouldn’t be dissected.
As long as I don’t go onstage completely normal and then jump into character onstage, I assume that most fans would be able to accept me as the creator. I can comment on the work the same way a director would on his movie.
As far as guys who perform onstage, I love Chris Rock. I’m kind of jaded on everyone else.
I think I’m a dancer in terms of what I do onstage.
Onstage, I was never the ingenue.
People are used to us being onstage for a while.
I saw a concert with Nena singing ’99 Red Balloons’ on TV and I said, ‘I will also go onstage and sing.’
Every time I go onstage, it’s a little less ‘Chris Rock’s brother.’
We want to be able to make our own songs and write our own arrangements. We want to incorporate the live sound so we can be free onstage and in the studio recording. That way we can come up with original and creative stuff.
I’ve seen people that get onstage and sing while they have tears running down their face – I can’t do that. When I cry, it starts like in my throat, so when I have something that’s really emotional, sometimes if I access that too much, I can’t finish the song.
I’m too nervous to eat before I go onstage, and I’ll usually eat out after the performance or when I get home at midnight.
Some weeks, I’m super-duper busy, so I can only fit cardio in here and there, a lot of stuff happens in the afternoon, so I can get up and have a workout, which makes me feel awesome for the rest of my day. There’s just something sexy about feeling strong. And every night I’m onstage, I get another workout.
Whenever I realize I’m being a goofball, I write it down. When I release the joke onstage, I love watching the effect it has on the audience. No one wants to see someone talk who takes themselves too seriously.
