I knew about the music. I got that part but I wanted to know the business, I wanted to know about royalties, how people got paid, producers and stuff like that so I read all those books like twice.
I have such memories; I keep thinking about all the people I worked with. I was in the recording studio and I was talking to one of the engineers who is 24 and they don't know these people. They just absolutely don't know the people and it just tickles me. I don't feel like I've grown up.
I had to put me foot down with the first record company. It was about 1975, when singers were being given names like Gary Glitter and Alvin Stardust, so they wanted to call me Benny Santini just because me dad's an Irish-Italian with an ice-cream business!
When I started playing music, people weren't selling 5 million records. That was not the standard; that was not the focus.
I just have to sell enough records to continue financing making more records.
I think the music business is changing. Artists that don't want to tour and just want to collect royalty checks and stay home are not going to be able to do that.
The first time I got into the studio, when I was 17, 18, I got to work with people who were some part of the Cheiron thing, who did all the early Britney Spears stuff, all the early 'NSync stuff.
I think all artists want that plaque, whether it's Gold or Platinum or multi-platinum. I think we all look forward to getting a plaque and hanging it on your wall and having something to show for the music that you've created.
I think that's the problem in a lot of music. We've got these record labels.
They were worried we wouldn't get any radio play at all[ for "A Deal with God" ]. That's why it was changed [to "Running Up That Hill"].
Well, I was making a record, and I had to choose a name, because they said, you know, you can't make a record under the name of Reg Dwight, because it's never going to - you know, it's not attractive enough.
You have to put these hooks in it, you know? You've got to make sure you got all that ear candy in it to get it through the gate.
The only thing I think of is the next hit record.
I'm a perfectionist, and I'm not going to let the world hear a record until it's ready.
Music is not free to make. Studios are going under because people now work at laptops. Quantity over quality is what begins to happen; the idea of what quality is has changed.
Back then I thought if you cut a record, you were automatically a star.
I got to play with the big guys, the Wrecking Crew. They just blew me away. I learned a lot of stuff from those guys.
I don't know why records are treated different than books. I don't know why an Eminem record is different than a Stephen King movie.
Records are one thing, and obviously, without hit songs, you don't have the opportunity to do your shows. But my live show has always been my selling tool.
I've never stopped writing, I've never slowed down just because I don't have something on the radio or a No. 1 or No. 2 record. That doesn't mean that I'm not in the studio planting seeds.
The big thing is I'm not with a major label. I've been independent since the get-go, and I've been very lucky to get some good advice on keeping hold of copyright and that kind of stuff.
For me, Memphis has always been a city that holds a great deal of meaning and also leads me to a lot of thinking. Besides Sun Studio, which helped put rock n' roll on the map all over the world, the legendary Stax Studio also called Memphis home.
If I cut an album now and sell it for ten bucks, I can put seven dollars and fifty cents in my pocket.
If somebody makes a record, no matter how many years later it's released, they or their families should be entitled to the proceeds.
We were lucky in the days of Led Zeppelin. Each album was different. We didn't have to continue a formula or produce a certain number of singles. Because, in those days, radio was still playing albums. That was really good.
