Music Heritage Quotes

I grew up singing Ray Charles and Jimmy Reed.

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.

I grew up on R&B and soul, so that backbone is always there.

From folk to tribal to Cab Calloway, Cole Porter, Gershwin to the Rolling Stones, whose first record was all covers, to country-western, bebop, blues, and even the referencing in classic hip hop to cliched love ballads of the '80s or whatever - that is kinda gone, and that's just terrifying to me.

People in England were coming up to me, saying, My mother and father turned me on to your music. This happened to me 20 years ago. When I was 40 they were saying that.

My grandparents from the old country, Latvia, were all musical on my father's side.

My heroes were gospel blues players like Blind Willie Johnson, Charley Patton, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, not whoever was number one.

I'm not a musician, I can't read music, but I came from a family of music fans. Not mad music fans, but people who like music. Both of my parents can play the piano. They were very good dancers, which I am not.

When I was growing up, both my grandmothers would play the organ, and we would all sing.

I was brought up on Black Sabbath, David Bowie, 50 Cent, and Guru. And it all comes out in my own music somewhere.

You get below the Mason-Dixon line and you have some of the best music, culture, the two races, the literature, and it's so rich.

Prince got some Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix and Sly in him, also, even Little Richard. He's a mixture of all those guys and Duke Ellington.

I was born in Alabama and my first live music experiences were in church. Every Sunday we watched regional gospel groups on television singing their hearts out.

I love listening to old records. Stuff from the '70s, even disco and funk records and a lot of early rock albums - what's great about those recordings is that you can actually hear the true tones of the drums themselves.

We are trying to prove that the blues lives on forever and anybody in this place can sing the blues.

'Maruvarthai' was an exciting song for me because it showcased my Carnatic roots.

One can't deny what has happened to us in the past. The secret is to enjoy and be proud of the music we've created and the people with whom we have been linked. It's all a long chain of involvement in the world, and we are proud to be yet another link in this chain.

'Boy,' 'October,' 'War,' 'The Unforgettable Fire' and 'The Joshua Tree,' those records, they're part of my musical DNA and structure.

I get a lot of my inspiration from the Jackson 5 and Luther Vandross.

Well all of Chuck's children are out there playing his licks, get into your kicks. Come back baby, rock and roll never forgets.

When I was a kid, we didn't have any blues stations. I never heard Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters or any of those people until the Stones had come along, and I took it upon myself to find out who these people were that they were covering.

My song 'Nevermind' was named after Nirvana's album, so when I had to choose a cover for my Spotify Singles session, choosing 'Like A Stone' by Audioslave was the natural next choice, as I grew up constantly listening to the song.

I go back to, like, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Elvis. I listen to everything.

I love the Country Music Hall of Fame. I don't think it's just a hall of fame and it's not just a museum. It's a schoolhouse. It's a place where people from all across the world can come and learn about this great genre that we're making a living out of.

As far as I'm concerned, blues and jazz are the great American contributions to music.