Brad Paisley Quotes

A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they're stuck in that safe place.

I have always been a singer/songwriter, and I was pushed in places I didn't want to do, like pop or top forty. I don't belong there.

The most important thing is that you honor that musical integrity, whether you make music that sounds like ABBA or you make music that sounds like Void.

I never excluded any genre on my first record.

In the past, I tried to be more of a typical session guitarist. I wasn't so concerned with impressing anybody.

I'm still more comfortable with standards than with my own songs.

I got my style. I got my own way of playing. I'm a musician. I'm self-taught.

Don't be afraid to play what you feel and what you think no matter what it is. If you play long enough, you start to move past your influences and find your own music.

Blues purists may hate what I do sometimes because it's a little dirtier.

First and foremost, play what you love to play. Don't try to jump on a bandwagon or a trend or a popular musical craze.

'Enlightened Rogues' we made like the earlier ones: whatever tune came up, whatever direction it went in, that's the way it went. That's what we'll always do. I think if we ever stop doin' that, we ought to quit.

When creating an album, one of the first things you have to think about is what you want your production style to be.

I didn't get into music to become a blues musician, or a country musician. I'm a singer-songwriter. In my book that means I get to do whatever I want.

I am at my core a singer/songwriter a la James Taylor or a la Billy Joel. It's not that I don't want to work with people, but I do just love doing my own thing.

I think it's always important to constantly keep the band on their toes and try new things that you hope will work. That's how 'Apologize' was born, and maybe down the line another little song will be born by that mentality. I've always really liked that song.

I get very frustrated by this term 'genre exercise.' I mean, what exactly is that? Genre is not really relevant when you are writing a song; hopefully you are doing it to explore something, to create something, and I don't agree that any of my albums are genre exercises.

A good story gives you more of a license to be forward and progressive with the music.

I got tired of playing other people's songs.

I never look for music by genre. I look for an artist who puts a dependable trademark on things. Like Elvis Costello - he's a great songwriter who presents his songs in a number of contexts. I feel the same about my own music.

Not really interested in covering other bands songs to be honest.

I knew I didn't want to make a country record just because that's not really what I would have ever made as a solo artist.

I first thought maybe I'd do a banjo presentation record, where I'd play a couple of songs and get a bunch of other players to do the rest. Then I realized I had enough of my own songs to do an album of them.

I mean, Tool has a style, but we try to make all our songs sound different from each other.

There are so many songs out there in the world that - if I know we have to come up with a new cover, then I'll just sit in my room and sing song after song and figure out which one I can kind of sing the best.

When a lot of musicians change styles, their songwriting suffers because they want to be different.