I've been obsessed with seeing life through music. My records, my relationship with records, my relationship with rock stars, everything that surrounds it, has been really one of the only ways that I ever started to understand the world.
The art, the greatness of the music, the experience of the music is what I'm about. I think most African artists have destroyed their artistry by commercialization, and I don't want to belong to that bag.
I think in London - and I don't wanna offend anybody in America, but this is a real statement - they still have the right approach to making music. In the U.S., people see it as a way to make money; they see it as a means to get out. It's a hustle, which is great - any way you can provide for your family that's legal is fantastic.
My whole life I've played music for my own personal enjoyment and the idea of it becoming a machine or a business is just horrible.
I was on a path that could've really led to disaster, and the one thing for me that really kept me focused and gave me something to believe in and a sense of self-worth and a discipline was music.
Music is my life. If music takes a backseat, everything will go away from my life.
I don't think any musician ever thinks about making a statement. I think everybody goes into music loving it.
I believe 100 percent in the power and importance of music.
Companies that pretend to care about music and really care about other things - whether it be hardware, whether it be advertising - and now they look at music as a loss leader. And we know music isn't a loss leader; music is an important part of our lives.
If music became extinct now, I don't know what I'd be good for.
I think I will never stop working with music; it has become a part of who I am.
I always make music as an art - it's never been a product for me.
I'm not suggesting people abandon musical instruments and start playing their cars and apartments, but I do think the reign of music as a commodity made only by professionals might be winding down.
I lost connection with music for a while, but I've always loved it.
Everything I do, I'm always playing music. When I wake up in the morning, I'm playing music. When I'm showering, I've got music playing. When I go to the field, music is playing.
I like the music. I don't like the business. I get very tired of the travel and moving, constantly moving. But the hour-and-a-half that I'm making music, I'm one of the happiest people on earth.
If you don't think drugs have done good things for us, then take all of your records, tapes and CD's and burn them.
I am never going to give music up.
I've always loved music and held it as a sacred thing that I can't touch, as I don't really want to deconstruct it or be a musician.
Do not take up music unless you would rather die than not do so.
Well, because music is my life and music is not work for me.
I can't satisfy myself with just trying to tie all of my imagination into music, especially when music is not appreciated as an art form as much as it used to be.
After being in a 'professional rock ensemble,' there's a great joy in making music with friends, without any release plan.
You're either in music socially and culturally to get through life, or you're not.
People tried to change my concept of what music is. That music is work, but it's not like that.
