Chinmayi Quotes

After I moved with my mother to St. Louis, my older sister and I went to see Ike Turner, who was the hottest then. His music charged me. I was never attracted to him, but I wanted to sing with his band.

Growing up, I was always around adult musicians who played for their entire lives. So that's what I wanted to do, and I always had that in mind.

John Barry was my hero when I was about 13. His scores to the James Bond movies were the scores of my life back then.

I listen to Morricone, the famed Italian film composer, while I'm working.

I believe that I'm an actor to this day because of 'Star Wars.' I saw 'Star Wars' as a child, and I was completely enamored by it.

'Jaws' was the definitive filmmaking turning point for me. It came out in the summer of '75 and I saw it an obsessive 55 times. They even ran a very embarrassing article about me in the local paper, about the weird kid who's seen 'Jaws' 55 times.

For me, everything definitely comes from music.

I was living on the wrong side of the tracks in Evanston, Illinois, in a home for boys. We had these Jackson 5 records. I really related to their voices - they were about my age, but they were doing it.

I grew up on film scores and scores from films.

When I was recording my first solo album 'Imaginaryland,' I was listening to a lot of movie scores.

It is jazz music that called me to be a musician and I have always sang the songs that moved me the most.

I was a kid, 12 or something, when the Partridge Family was big on TV. I liked the curly cord running from the bass to the amps, which were real fancy. That cord looked so cool. I said, 'Wow! I gotta play something like that!'

Watching a Kirk Douglas movie, 'Young Man With A Horn,' made me want to be a trumpet player.

I grew up idolising Madhuri Dixit, though I wasn't a Hindi film buff. I had an academic upbringing, and movies were a rarity. I looked up to Madhuri because I loved dancing, and she's a fantastic dancer.

I think I always wished I could play guitar as well as Jimi Hendrix.

Hendrix was a perfect guitarist. And that's all I wanted to do as a kid. Play a guitar properly and jump around.

I have a Stratocaster, which is part of my long, doomed ambition to become Jimi Hendrix.

I have tried to show the influence of folk music in Bollywood, in Tamil movies, in Telugu cinema.

When I was 14, I heard Otis Redding in a club local to me, and I was blown away. It leaped out at me and went straight to my heart. I set my sights on singing like that.

I am born and brought up in Mumbai. I have grown up watching Hindi films. So I belong here, I feel.

I went to see Ocean Colour Scene at Shepherds Bush and and felt part of something. They paved the way for me.

I fell in love with Sri when I watched her Tamil film during the late 1970s. After watching her film, I wanted to know more about her.

When I was nine, I was passing by a drum class and saw them playing and I was moved. That's why I started making music.

After watching Guru Dutt's films, I became a huge fan of Sahir Ludhianvi's poetry and the songs of Guru Dutt's films.

I've always looked at guys who I've admired, like John Williams and Lalo Schifrin and Max Steiner, and looked at the choices they made and always try to take a cue from that.