I'm definitely inspired by Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, James Brown, Lauryn Hill.
Kiss is the number-one American band in gold-record sales. In the world, only the Beatles and the Stones are ahead of us. Every other band should be wiping my ass. The line forms over there to the left.
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.
Those folks at Death Row were the Rolling Stones of their time.
I was heavily influenced by big voices when I was younger. People like Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, and Patti Labelle really spoke to me. When I got older, I was into Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, and Lauryn Hill, but it wasn't until I started working with a voice coach that I really dove into jazz music.
When it comes to the stage, I can't help but be inspired by people like George Clinton, Elton John and Alice Cooper.
My favourite singers are people like R. Kelly and people like that.
I didn't even respect singers until I heard Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.
I am the biggest Destiny's Child - Beyonce, Kelly, Michelle, all of them - fan in the world.
Jimi Hendrix came from the blues, like me. We understood each other right away because of that. He was a great blues guitarist.
I've been in The Who, I've been in The Beatles and I've been in Pink Floyd! Top that!
My daughter is 15. None of her friends know who the hell Chris Rea is, but they know that song - as soon as it comes on, they start singing it. I've played with everyone from Status Quo to Talk Talk, but nothing impresses them as much as the fact that I play on 'Driving Home for Christmas.'
One night all the James Brown band was playing on stage and I look in the back and I could see Mick Jagger and Keith Richards trying to get in the club and they couldn't get in cause it was to crowded.
My heroes were gospel blues players like Blind Willie Johnson, Charley Patton, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, not whoever was number one.
My favorite artists are Kanye West, Jay Z, the Fugees, Lauryn Hill, Destiny's Child.
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.
Lauryn Hill's always been a hero of mine. And Bruno Mars, Janelle Monae and Adele, those are the current artists I would reference in terms of who's been able to do really amazing pop records with really cool, organic throwback elements of soul in there as well.
So I wouldn't see Wings as a band that would go into the Hall of Fame, to be honest.
As a kid, looking at Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, New Edition, the Temptations, Motown, people who I felt were huge artists, they made me wanna do something.
I grew up in the sixties watching B.B. King and Tito Puente and Miles Davis and Coltrane, everybody, Marvin Gaye, Jimi. And at the same time, with my left eye I was watching Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Mother Teresa.
We didn't have the Grand Ole Opry or country radio stations in Nova Scotia when I was growing up.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame traditionally has had a management style that is very supportive of American talent, first and foremost, over everything else. And I think that's right and proper.
'Free Bird' is timeless, 'Sweet Home' is timeless. They're just timeless songs.
Books don't live and die by awards. You don't listen to an Hector Lavoe album because it won some awards.
I've interviewed everyone from Joe Strummer to Iggy Pop.
