When I was young, I wanted to be a movie star. But I realized that you have no control being an actor. So I went to architecture school in NYC, because I was crazy about buildings. Then I began to realize that I got more excited about Vogue coming out each month than I was about my projects.
The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.
I met Malcolm the month before he was killed. He deeply changed my mind about America.
When I can focus on something like guitar or painting, I do. I started painting people I admire, like Kerouac, Bob Dylan, Nelson Algren, Marlon Brando, Patti Smith, my girl, my kids.
From a small child to right now - I mean, when I was five years old, Red Norville, Tal Farlow, Charles Mingus, Les Paul, Mary Ford, people like that were coming over to my house. So I was around professional adult mature musicians who had had big careers.
The big stars I felt a kinship with were never the romantic leads. It wasn't Steve McQueen or Robert Redford - it was people like Walter Matthau and Anthony Quinn. My big hero was Tommy Cooper.
Snoop Dogg and T-Pain, to me, are like legends so it's like, any time you get to work with a legend like that, it's cool.
I'm really going off of watching John Waters speak one time and I remember he just kind of talked and it was totally interesting. I wanted to hear about his life and how he got started and when did he think he made it, stupid stuff like that. And what his relationship with the mainstream is because he's so far out there, but then he became part of the mainstream in this weird way. He was really funny, though. Yeah, I have to work on my jokes.
There is message to the community that a non-governmental process is underway to bring about social change, it's a public one, and people like Margaret Thatcher, George Bush, and Mikhail Gorbachev are throwing their weight behind it. In a world where there's a lot of cynicism and despair, this has a candle-lighting effect.
My influences have been what I call my four Bs - the primary one being the blues, then Borges, Baraka, and Bearden.
I went to Moscow and met some slightly powerful and scary people.
I've been connected to the most culturally important albums of the past four years, the most influential artists of the past ten years. You have like, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, Nicolas Ghesquière, Anna Wintour, David Stern.
I think you look around the world in general, and who are the most popular people in the world? You can say that politicians and musicians are up there, but I guarantee you that athletes are ranked right up at the top if not more than a lot of those people. When you're well known, people look at you - especially kids. They want to be you.
I like the Beatles. They're at the core of my musicality. And John Lennon's my spiritual father.
I have had three masters, Nature, Velasquez, and Rembrandt.
Ritchie Blackmore was a huge early influence on me, but after that I had to find my own way ... Johann Sebastian Bach was probably the most influential guy ever on me ... Vivaldi, Beethoven and eventually Paganini ... all of a sudden I was thinking in all these other areas, instead of blues riffs.
I never had the slightest desire to be a major league manager, and all knew it. But Ban Johnson, Bob Hedges, and Jimmy McAleer persuaded me that the Browns were in a sort of a jam, and it was up to me, as an old standby, to do what I could.
Some of my favorite style icons are Kate Moss and Rihanna, except I'm a little bit younger. I put a little bit more teenage into it.
The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Phil Spector. Those were my idols.
When you're a kid and you're trying to find your own voice, it's rather daunting to hear somebody like Howlin' Wolf, because you know that you'll never achieve that.
For someone like me, who has grown up with Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, it's hard not to invest a lot of myself in what I do.
I have always been very good at being able to structure my time. My mother had a huge influence on me. My dad was my coach. He was a hugely influential figure.
In writing songs, I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie.
Oliver Sacks remains my hero to this day. He was one of the first medical writers I read. The other was Lewis Thomas, who is no longer alive but is just heroic to me.
Ordinary people need extraordinary examples.
