Lindsey Buckingham Quotes

When I was young, I was offered my first recording contract in 1971 and was offered quite a bit of money if I would change my character and be a '70s version of Cher.

Radio is aimed at the 30-year-old market, so you have to have great music and appeal to get that age group. And you need a record company to believe in you. It's like a bit of the perfect storm.

When I was signed, that was before the punk thing even happened.

I was very disenchanted in the industry for a long time before I met GaGa. Everyone wanted a 'Single Ladies' for their artist, or a Puffy move.

We were ready to launch Barry White, but the record company wouldn't put it out. Said it wouldn't sell.

I think some people record songs and make records a certain way to cater to radio. If you're born to make commercial music that's cool. But if you're born to not make commercial records, maybe you're meant to cater to another market.

I don't think the label makes the artist or the artist makes the label. It's the music that makes everything work or not.

My passion is music, you know, and music influences culture, influences lifestyle, which leads me to 'Roc-A-Wear'. I was forced to be an entrepreneur, so that led me to be CEO of 'Roc-A-Fella' records, which lead to Def Jam.

Being a musician has actually surrounded and immersed me in pop culture and youth culture from a very young age. But even before I was singing in bands and creating any kind of art, I was always fascinated by pop culture.

I run an independent company, Knockout Entertainment. We've always come out with records that had a concept that impacted really, really, really hard.

Hip hop is a multi-billion dollar business, and it was built off an opportunity that nobody else saw because they didn't understand the culture.

When you finish a song, your first thought is going to be, 'Is this song a hit?' I hate that we think that way, because it kind of takes a little bit of the meaning out of the songs that are being written, but you're definitely going to think, 'Can this song be put on the radio?'

Instead, of worrying if something will be a hit, bands need to go out and make good music, get a following, play live. That's how you make a career these days.

I spend six to seven days a week in the studio making records. I don't have time to go do a lot of things that you have to play the political game to get recognition with the Grammy crew.

Even the diss tracks was enhancing 'Panda.'

There's no album in 2016 that's better than my album.

I want to learn - there's so much I have to learn about what it takes to be a recording artist, about what it takes to go on tour.

The music industry is a very rough industry. Many years ago, I think it was even rougher in the sense that a lot of it was predicated on image.

I have never felt in tune with the whole rock industry.

I think it's very important for hip-hop, when an artist reaches a certain level, to ascend to executive work.

My first love was basketball, but that wasn't gonna launch me, and I knew I had to get into other things. So me and my friends, we started making mix CDs and going down to South Beach or to the parking lot at Pitbull concerts to spend all night hustling.

When I got my record deal at Atlantic, at the time, 'indie' wasn't a style of music: it was a kind of label. And I think, eventually, the bands that ended up on those labels began to be branded as 'indie bands,' and then it became a genre.

If you put out quality music, you're always going to be in a good place.

I want to sell music. That's all I'm interested in selling.

It's definitely been a long, long... long, long, long, long, long journey since I was selling burnt CD's out of my backpack in downtown Oakland.