I'm not a country picker, really - I like a nice, beefy, raunchy sort of sound.
I do have very solid reggae roots based on the fact that I'm Jamaican, and so that is a part of myself; even if I never do all reggae, it has to come out in some way because that's who I am.
A lot of people record on a laptop and use plug-ins, which might be OK for the kind of music that they're doing. But for the kind of music that I'm doing, that just doesn't work. I can't cut corners; everything has to be organic.
When I had my television show, 'Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters,' it was my high hope to convert people to country music. It is wonderful and contagious!
I appreciate Drake's music, I appreciate Future's music, I appreciate Lil Durk's music. I appreciate Uzi, Meek Mill, I appreciate Migos.
The first time I saw 'Minecraft,' people wanted to have 8-bit style video game music. But I wanted to go around that and make something organic and partly electronic, partly acoustic, and see if that would be interesting.
Rock 'n' roll is meant to entertain. Hippie folk singers are supposed to be singing about leftist views, but I don't think rock 'n' roll was ever that way. I don't remember the early rock 'n' rollers ever expressing any political views.
I love Usher's 'Confessions.'
Bill Stevenson of The Descendants is really good, too.
Rock 'n Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.
I was sometimes jeered by black soldiers who wanted me to sing something besides country music.
There's no single movement out there. It's not like in the '60s, when Revolver came out and that's just it for the next year.
I used to be a pop singer; well, not used to be. I am an R&B singer. My emphasis was on Stevie Wonder and Chaka Khan and Aretha Franklin.
People told me that Miley's '23' wasn't hip-hop. Let me tell you, she went in and owned that track.
Breaking Benjamin, talk about songwriting, I mean, some of the greatest songwriters of the modern era. And, obviously, it's a little heavier.
I can't give up. It's a rap thang. And I ain't goin back to the crack game.
Those folks at Death Row were the Rolling Stones of their time.
In a way, I started out to be a baritone player.
We've taken Japan's 'idol' music genre of pretty girls singing and dancing and added 'kawaii metal,' which is totally new.
All of my favorite records have vocals high in the mix, even if it's music that wasn't necessarily mainstream.
Making music is what drives me - not awards, not Internet fame, not even exorbitant amounts of money. My fans call themselves 'Aadeez,' and they are the most loyal lot. I make my music for them. I love them.
Country music tell stories. That's something that I can relate to.
I started dreaming of becoming a singer after seeing Michael Jackson in the 'Billie Jean' video. The mix of fantastic choreography and amazing music made such a huge impact on the music industry.
If you're a pop singer, you don't need to evolve. You just get a set together, have some hit songs and play them over and over.
My mom was a folk singer and Celtic harpist. My dad was in a barbershop quartet and my great grandma was an opera singer. As I grew up, I discovered pop music and Top 40 radio, but it was in the '90s, so music was very different then - it was really lyrical.
