Nile Rodgers Quotes

Miles Davis had me play and he hired me the following week and after that, everything broke wide open.

I want to be Kanye and do what he does musically. I'm very fearless.

I had always wanted to make music on a big scale but never knew how it was going happen - until I saw a band in Oslo called Bridges. I was stunned. They had everything. The only thing they didn't have was me. I knew I needed to join, not for my own sake but for the band's. I knew I was a necessary ingredient.

I had been, like, 'I don't wanna be a singer anymore', so dramatic, but when I was recording with Brian Higgins I was like, oh my god I love this, I love these songs, I love what this is. And then we just kept on working and working until we got more songs.

When they ask who is your biggest influence, I always say Pharrell: whether it is music or fashion, I'm a big fan.

The fact that designers like Lagerfeld, Gaultier, Galliano and Dior could believe in Alek made me believe in myself, too.

It's every songwriter's dream to come up with a standard.

'Pagan Day' was Alex Fergusson's idea. It was him that encouraged me to start making music again and start Psychic TV.

I started to play music again because of my dad and my mom. I grew up playing guitar with my dad, and he and my mom encouraged me to start again.

I couldn't do what I do without the encouragement and influence of the musicians I played with in Chicago.

We did everything we could to hold Pantera together and fought for it until the very end, and now that it's gone we're 100% focused on Damageplan.

The fact that I had a gay agent was good because he could say: 'Honey, you've got an audition today. Keep your feet on the ground, O.K.?'

I think Green Day's 'American Idiot' is probably the best comeback or mid-career record that any band has done.

I've been trying my whole life to get to this point, and it's finally here. It's an amazing record, and it happens to be with Stone Temple Pilots. I mean, what could be better than that?

I just want to be a part of a band that will be able to reinvent themselves, you know.

We never really dreamed of being a band until it just naturally happened. All of a sudden, we were like, 'Maybe we should take this kind of seriously, because people seem to like it.'

So much of inspiration comes from collaboration with other musicians.

Music is like having a conversation. All musicians inspire each other, and they're all geared to play something that matters.

It was very interesting time to be in England. Even at that point [John] Lennon and [Paul] McCartney influenced my writing. I thought, "maybe there is a huck or two in here I haven't thought of".

There's a good sarcasm and a camaraderie that comes after being in a band. And we've known each other forever. We've never been a band that fought or argued. As a songwriter, I'm really happy that the boys support me and contribute and that, but I've always wanted to be under the band Stereophonics.

Everyone's [ me, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty] equally involved in all the writing. Normally we'll start with a sample or a drumbeat, or a synth sound or something like that, and that will spark the initial idea. And then we'll write an instrumental sketch of a song, and then we put on a nonsense vocal melody, which is always my favourite bit because it obviously sounds amazing.

I called the guys from Promise of the Real, whom I've been playing with, and they were all on the road. Right after I hung up the phone, I wrote another song and started writing another, and I'm going, "Hey, I can't wait. I should be doing this now!" My experience tells me that when it's there, it's there, and you can't make it wait. So I got Jimmy Keltner and Paul Bushnell, two good guys, and went in and did this record ["Peace Trail"].

That was a very different emotion and I felt Dido's words would be good and I had a template with my voice in it. Then, when he heard it, he wanted both our voices together in it and that's the scene when he sees the boy and then he gets charged to go on that final cutting effort.

Obviously, [Wham!] made me a lot more comfortable as a musician. I was very confident that I would become a successful musician, but I had no idea I would be a celebrity.

Every time I work with Dr. Luke I learn something new. He's kind of like the Andy Warhol of pop music, where he mass produces his art but it always still has heart and always still has an emotional thread to it. I think he's really a genius and I'm so lucky to have gotten to work with him.