It's easy to get people to sing along to cover songs, but when it's your song, it's the coolest.
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!
Pantera is a marquee band, with the most diehard fans. We sold over 20 million records without MTV or radio.
I can't think of another artist who has a fan base as diverse, in that the ladies in their 70s at the 4-H club have the same collection of Johnny Cash records as the punk on the street in Amsterdam.
I certainly never imagined 80-year-olds singing along, like they were watching Cats. I'm fascinated by that kind of pop cultural zeitgeist that it's attached itself to.
If my peers had a significant impact on my music, my music would probably be a lot more popular.
We were the ones that from the beginning said that 'Wide Open Spaces' was a hit. 'This is a hit, people are going to relate to it.'
People put mixtapes out every few months, every year. They come often. Not 'Mood Muzik.' It's a totally different type of monster. And when you hear it, you should be able to understand why.
I think we're in a very low point of music right now.
No band has two hours' worth of greatest hits, but Queen comes close.
When 'I'm Sorry' came out and became such a huge hit, that made 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree' start selling. Then that became a huge, huge hit.
MTV didn't exist in 1980, but by 1982, it had gotten to be a force to be reckoned with.
There is a lot of music in the world that I love that does not always get the appropriate exposure.
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.'
I have seen more bad songs make it because of MTV than good ones that haven't.
When I started playing music, people weren't selling 5 million records. That was not the standard; that was not the focus.
I was asked, 'Why do you think the male 'X Factor' winners haven't been successful in the past?' And I said, 'Because obviously the body of work that they've brought out wasn't good enough,' and that was it.
The 1960s were big for folk music, and the Kingston Trio led the way. They were the ones who started it all. The music was fresh and alive. College kids loved it and their parents did, too.
I don't want to be oh-so-brag-about-it, but 'The Rain' is hot.
I don't know if a song is going to be a hit or it's going to flop. I never know. I just do the music and if people like it, they like it.
One of the disadvantages of poetry over popular music is that if you write a pop song, it naturally gets into people's heads as they listen in the car. You don't have to memorize a Paul Simon song; it's just in your head, and you can sing along. With a poem, you have to will yourself to memorize it.
After putting out songs with 26 million views on YouTube, your life changes a little bit. Suddenly everyone's like, 'Where's the album?'
Maybe it's because One Direction was just on 'SNL,' or because I'm playing The Wanted on my Top 40 show, but in terms of boy bands, we're seeing this resurgence, and it's happening, whether you like it or not!
None of my heroes were big rock stars, and I thought, 'This isn't how it's meant to be.' It wasn't about making music so much as selling it.
The hardest part about the music industry for anyone is getting into the ears of the world.
