inspirations Quotes

My biggest style inspirations come from the '90s. I'm really inspired by TLC, Janet Jackson, and designers like Jeremy Scott. I'm hugely inspired by Club Kids from New York back in the '90s. I'm inspired by the drag queen scene. Combat boots and the torn off jeans and a baggy shirt - I love that look.

Influences come from everywhere. I don't really feel like I had too many influences for the first record because I grew up listening to music in church, and that was pretty much it. I didn't really grow up listening to AC/DC and all those bands.

Show me what a people admire, and I will tell you everything about them that matters.

I grew up watching sci-fi and Justice League and all those kinds of things.

I'm always pulling and really feeding off of my inspirations. I think most musicians do.

I like listening to old soul music. I like Sam Cooke. When I was growing up, the first things I was listening to was Whitney Houston and Cher. They were really big inspirations for me.

I was going on this desert adventure with some friends and we were like, "How amazing would it be to just drag all these mirrors out there?" A lot of times I do things as an impulse and find out my inspirations afterward. Even with songs and lyrics, it can take me years to find out what I was actually trying to do.

I share different relationships with all directors. I share a beautiful working relationship with Anurag Kashyap. Sriram Raghavan is such an inspiration and I have always wanted to work with them. I gel really well with filmmakers like these.

Witty inspirations are the proverbs of the educated.

I'm a product of my surroundings. I grew up on Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, Jerry Reed, and also Run-D.M.C., the Beastie Boys, the Fat Boys, and Biz Markie.

I really didn't try to make an effort to make urban music, but I am a product of my inspirations.

My gurus were Dharmendra and Shatrughan Sinha.

Forget about your folklore. I can take a few inspirations, but I can certainly not do an homage. That's not my trip. I'm a fashion vampire. I take what I need and I leave the rest.

What I think is so great about interviews, is when people cite inspirations.

I'm not a star. I'll never be a Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley or a Ray Charles. I'm just an imitator, man. I'm doing a very bad imitation on the bass of Jerry Jemmott, Bernard Odum, Jimmy Fielder, Jimmy Blanton, Igor Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, James Brown, Charlie Parker... the cats, man. I'm just backing up the cats.

People compare me to the people I listen to, the people I'm influenced by, Andre 3000, Missy, Busta.

I got my style from a lot of different people, even my style of reading, even Johnny Carson inspired me.

My character was a homogenization of various things, whether it be the attitude of a Bruiser Brody, or the look of Nikita Koloff or the way that Nikita looked at the people. I took a little bit of what I liked and what I had seen throughout the years from everybody that I was entertained by and made it my own.

I would like to work with Paul McCartney in the future. Or Brian Seltzer. But I guess like, like I said - I'm into The Strokes, like Ben Folds, Eliot Smith, the Beatles are my favorite, the Beach Boys, Queen.