Musiq Soulchild Quotes

I just want to make music, I don't want people to talk about me. All I've ever wanted to do was sing. I don't want to be a celebrity. I don't want to be in people's faces, you know, constantly on covers of magazine that I haven't even known I'm on.

I never dreamt of being a musician for my livelihood. I certainly never would have wanted to be in the business that I'm in, meaning the fame and the glory, the glitter, the rock star, the famous part.

I would be a huge hypocrite if I didn't tell you that at one time in my life I thought the way that you made music was you got on a major label and you got famous.

I started singing when I was 18 and landed my first record deal with RCA when I was 26 after a lot of grafting singing in pubs and clubs.

I took temp jobs, recorded a demo in the evenings and eventually shopped a record deal. All I knew was that I wanted to write songs; thankfully, I also got to sing them.

I came to California and got signed at a young age. And it's not like you see in the movies, where you start rubbing shoulders with Timbaland and Pharrell, and you become a giant pop star.

It only took me six months to get a record deal, but it took me 20 years to have a hit.

Back then I thought if you cut a record, you were automatically a star.

I went from the most underground band in the world to signing with Madonna's producer and a record label that is extremely mainstream - it was interesting.

I wanted music to be a career. To base everything on fame to me seemed a dangerous thing - I wanted my foundations to be about improving as a performer and writer. No one could push me into going down that route of being a celebrity singer.

None of my heroes were big rock stars, and I thought, 'This isn't how it's meant to be.' It wasn't about making music so much as selling it.

It's a sense of pride, a sense of you set out to get a record deal, and we got that. We set out to get a No. 1 record, and then we got that. Then you say, 'Wow, that was impossible and now even more impossible is to stay No. 1 and stay current and put out new records that people care about,' and we really stuck to that.

My original goal was to get into the Top 100. I listened to every song in the Top 100 every day. I knew them all - this is where the gods reside.

I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd ever be offered a record deal, and to get a Christmas No. 1 would be huge for any performer, let alone an ex-footballer.

I want to sell out arenas and sell millions of records.

Before, I was more concerned with getting on the radio, like many young artists.

I feel confident that the work I've put in will make people see me as a music artist before anything else.

It's such a cycle. You'll see a rapper drop a song, and next thing you know, he's gone.

I was kicked off a record label and didn't get picked up again. It was devastating at first because I thought, 'Oh my God. My career is over. What's gonna happen? What am I going to do?' Once I got that I could have a career, a very good career, without having a hit record, then I changed.

First of all, I've been having a wonderful run of luck with cover albums, songs I didn't write. I had five pop cover albums and two Christmas albums, and they were all very successful.

I'd be saying, 'No, I'm so not a DJ, I'm a producer.' But no matter how much faith you may have in yourself, until you have a hit you can't really run around telling everyone you're a producer.

Now so many really good groups who have had a first major hit can't get a deal for a second one.

When you are in your 20's and 30's, you just want a hit record and you don't really care how it happens.

When I was nominated for a Grammy, my label dropped me - I have a wariness about trying for a hit.

I was signed to a record label at the same time as my friend Elliot Murphy, who makes great records to this day.