Dave Haywood Quotes

I grew up with a heavy diet of gospel, folk, and blues because those are kind of the cornerstones of traditional American music.

I grew up listening to Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and lots of blues, R&B and Motown.

I usually listen to various kind of singers. Curtis Mayfield was my favorite. James Brown, Tina Turner, queen of soul, I started to get that musical essence from that time before I even do my first song.

When I started playing, I played in R&B bands. I played James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and all that.

I'm coming from a Ginuwine and Usher background: slow and smooth songs. And that's why I really connected to Sam Cooke, because he was just very smooth. It's not like the James Brown types, which is all great stuff, but he was totally set apart from those guys.

It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive character.

Macon has such a rich musical history - and the state of Georgia, as well.

I say that I do soul, R&B music. I have so many influences, from Billie Holiday, Nina Simone to Stevie Wonder and Prince and even Al Green and Bjork. And a lot of hip hop music has influenced me a lot - you know - De La Soul and Digital Underground and A Tribe Called Quest.

When I was a kid, I was following black soul music.

The south is very focused on family... the musical heritage of Muscle Shoals especially and the bands from the region.

My real musical discovery started when I was 10 with Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5, and acts that I connected with because they were young when they were doing it, like me. Then I kind of came into my own a couple of years later; I found new artists that shaped my musical landscape. For instance, Kings of Leon played a big part in that.

People like Howlin' Wolf, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, John Lee Hooker, Nina Simone, Captain Beefheart - all of these artists were what I grew up listening to every day of my life. And there's a very healthy music scene in the west country of England, where I grew up.

From the spiritual came the blues, gospel, and rhythm-and-blues. I heard all of that music growing up, and that has influenced how I approached classical music. I'm sure of it.

You get below the Mason-Dixon line and you have some of the best music, culture, the two races, the literature, and it's so rich.

I was never really that interested in the punk movement. I was a blues guy: I liked Motown, James Brown.

I was a James Brown junkie as a kid.

I was introduced to soul music at a very young age - my mom was a soul singer.

I've always been a big fan of the American soul sound.

Oh, man, I love the Staple Singers. I love Pop Staples' guitar playing, too. He's one of my favorite guitar players.

I love Sly Stone and James Brown and Stevie Wonder, and I want my music to reflect some of that.

Every James Brown cut makes a party get crazy. He's the god of all music. I always play different wild remixes of his songs because people start bugging out when they realise what I'm playing.

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 can't even imagine something being more fun than playing James Brown onstage.

Prince is from the school of James Brown, and I love James Brown because of all the great rhythms he plays.

The South just keeps right on playing good time Southern music.