Ann Wilson Quotes

My style is part of the music I like, the bands I see, the people I surround myself with, the places I go to.

At 18, I moved to L.A. with my heavy metal band Avant Garde, which was very much influenced by Metallica. At 19, I got a job at Tower Records, and everything started to change very quickly. I started listening to the Velvet Underground, Pixies, early Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and also earlier music like the Beatles.

Of course it's fantastic to have bands formed in garages, but there is a market for other types of music.

Entertainment isn't just based on the very structured syndrome of European popular music, and it's great that there are so many thousands of people who are of the same opinion.

A lot of people get into alternative music as part of their identity. It's something that isn't the mainstream, that their brothers and sisters don't know about, and that their parents don't like. It's something they can have as their own.

Nowadays, people have an open mind vis-a-vis new artists like Meghan Trainor, Nico & Vinz, Hozier - there are hits coming out of everywhere.

The Indian music scene is completely dominated by Bollywood music. We need to create space for indi-pop music.

I feel like I don't fit in. There's not a lot of outlets for urban music, for black artists who don't have that crossover thing going early on.

A lot of punk rock. I listen to various stuff just cuz my friends now listen to a lot of different bands. I listen to a lot of underground stuff like jungle music.

Punk was more based on social change than on music, so it didn't bother me too much. It wasn't really a musical threat.

I think Perry Ferrell put independent music on a very good path with Lollapalooza.

I actually think that Republican administrations are better for music. The Reagan era was such a great era for punk and indie rock.

So many big magazines just dissed the whole punk thing as nothing, but really, it was a big thing. It really changed, and that's what we wanted to do - change the system.

I don't really hear much music these days that grabs me. I think there are a lot of reasons for this but the overriding one is that there aren't as many opportunities for a band to get good or experiment or start the next wave of something.

If I opened a record store, it wouldn't be all punk rock and esoterica.

I have a taste for a lot of different kinds of music... everything, from hip-hop to jazz to R&B to top 40 to alternative. There's a lot of good music out there. Every now and then, I'll flip through VH1 and watch the videos... the only thing I really don't listen to is country.

Anyway, you know, when Richard Meltzer said rock and roll died in '68, what he means is Jefferson Airplane were no longer his buddies, that's what he really means. He means it in a political way: that was when the artists and the audience found themselves on different levels.

I was raised on 'TRL' and listened to every genre that sounded good to me, from Sum 41 to Jay Z to Band of Horses to J. Dilla to Deathcab for Cutie to Pharrell.

As an artist, I am for non-film music as well. I want that to shine as much as Bollywood.

Playing in London in 1979 was exciting: it was at the start of new wave, the transition period after punk, and there were a lot of radical, fashionable young people on the streets and in the venues.

Our focus is still on country, but, really, on whatever music our artists are making.

Just being a singer in Nashville is hard because everyone does music here, and so many people do it really well. But then, the fact that I do this alternative kind of pop music, dreampop... It's like I'm the lone unicorn roaming around this town.

The Grammys are very wide-ranging but it's still within the Western world of music. So it would be lovely if that opened up more.

I'm a proud mainstream musician, but having said that, I do firmly believe there's more to musical talent in India than just Bollywood.

This is show business, and there's room for the shows and the personalities. But I think there's also room for music, for people to play music, and there seems to be an audience developing that's willing to go listen to music again, rather than just be blown away by drum machines and choreography.