Rhythm and Blues Quotes

I'm definitely inspired by Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, James Brown, Lauryn Hill.

I grew up singing Ray Charles and Jimmy Reed.

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.

I remember hearing Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Big Bill Broonzy, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and not really knowing anything about the geography or the culture of the music. But for some reason it did something to me - it resonated.

I grew up listening to a lot of soul music, and a lot of folk music.

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

I feel like pop and R&B are just my core.

My dad liked a lot of Motown, but I didn't listen to it until my teenage years.

Swing is my main weapon.

I'd say I am a nice cross of R&B and Pop.

I think of people like Ray Charles, Otis Redding, and Isaac Hayes. They all came out of the South, and they followed a certain tradition and energy. That's no knock to groups like The Temptations or The Supremes, not at all, but they were way more polished in how they did things.

My primary influences were the best jazz players from the 50's and 60's and later some of the pop people from the same time period along with the better of the well known blues musicians.

I still love R&B - I kind of literally listen to everything.

Miles Davis was doing something inherently African, something that has to do with all forms of American music, not just jazz.

I'm so old, I can remember before rock 'n' roll come along.

I think it's all about the music you listen to along the way. For me, my parents always played Motown music and The Beatles, so I was drawn to the soul.

I always loved James Brown, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke.

Ooh Poo Pah Doo' was a monster song.

I'm just real in-tune with music - I really listen to R&B more than I listen to rap.

I would love to play Janis Gaye in the Marvin Gaye story. If they ever do the Marvin Gaye story, I would love to play Janis - just throwing that out there.

Stevie Wonder's records introduced me to '70s soul when I was 12 or 13.

The music I was really listening to in 1968 was James Brown, the great guitar player Jimi Hendrix, and a new group... Sly and the Family Stone, led by Sly Stewart from San Francisco.

I remember having a lot of Josh White albums. Johnny Cash. Elvis. I loved the Coasters.

When we bemoan the lost golden age of music, it's worth remembering that mainstream radio listeners of the '60s and '70s, particularly in Canada, missed out on an outpouring of brilliant R&B music.

I grew up listening to AM radio in the '70s and hearing all of that great soul and rhythm and blues music, which definitely influenced the way I sing. But singing gospel has made me a much more humble person. There are so many people who were geniuses who only a few people knew about when they were alive.