I was nurtured by Ralph Farquhar and then, later, by Sara Finney-Johnson and Vida Spears, two black women. So, I actually was nurtured by my culture, in a safe environment that allowed me to build my confidence. And Debbie Allen was one of my mentors, along with Stan Lathan.
If I could be good at any sport, it’d be javelin. I know a few people I would love to throw a spear at.
I didn’t even know about guys wearing makeup, like David Bowie and Boy George. When I was really young, I wasn’t into that – I was into Britney Spears.
I do sing in the car. I actually sing Britney Spears songs in the car – me and a close friend of mine. She lives in West Palm and I live in Miami, and when we’re going back and forth to see each other, we sing: ‘Oh, Baby Baby.’ We sing all these 1990s songs. We’re like two 14-year-old kids just having a good time.
Poor little Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, or whatever her name is. It must be incredible at that age to be surrounded by people telling you you’re wonderful.
In general, people are comfortable sharing their music. There are two exceptions, though – Lady Gaga and Britney Spears.
In the first gospel, Mark, the risen Christ appears physically to no one, but by the time we come to the last gospel, John, Thomas is invited to feel the nail prints in Christ’s hands and feet and the spear wound in his side.
If I can change bodies with anyone, it would be Britney Spears because how can you not like Britney Spears?
I grew up on a farm in eastern Tennessee with a very southern lifestyle, so my roots are super country and southern, but my first concert was Britney Spears. I think that you can hear both of those influences in my music.
My personal favorite person we worked with in the U.K. is Cathy Dennis, who is absolutely incredible. She wrote ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ for Kylie Minogue and ‘Toxic’ for Britney Spears, so she’s one of my absolute favorite pop writers.
Who do you think made the first stone spears? The Asperger guy. If you were to get rid of all the autism genetics, there would be no more Silicon Valley.
I did a cake for the 60th birthday of Elton John, for Britney Spears’ 27th birthday and for the ‘Circus’ album she put out – the cake had circus themes. I prepared a cake for a surprise 82nd birthday event for the architect Frank Gehry; the cake was comprised of mini-replicas of his buildings.
When I was on the ‘Mickey Mouse Club,’ there was Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling and Christine Aguilera. But they were 12 and I was 17, so there was a bit of an age difference.
Faith makes all evil good to us, and all good better; unbelief makes all good evil, and all evil worse. Faith laughs at the shaking of the spear; unbelief trembles at the shaking of a leaf.
Britney Spears is a big influence. Huge. I think people thought I was joking about that for a long time. But when I was a teenager, there was a genuine connection with this sweet girl who also had this very sexual side that people didn’t really want to accept.
Miss Britney Spears took a dude that was already with a girl that had babies. And sometimes when you do that kind of stuff and take a dude, that’s called karma.
When I was growing up, I read Britney Spears’ and Mariah Carey’s biographies. I just wanted to see how they did it because I was so eager to get into the biz.
When I sing along with Britney Spears I will sing in an American accent. But eventually I found my own voice. My songs are so brutally honest, it would be alien to sing in any accent other than my own. Don’t get me wrong – I can imitate singers. I can do bar mitzvahs and weddings.
When your dad comes back from a faraway land with bows and arrows and spears wrapped up in a carpet… that’s cool.
I wasn’t Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson. I wasn’t Tori Amos or Norah Jones. Nobody knew what to do with me.
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