Kris Kristofferson Quotes

I saw footage of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley just hanging out together in Memphis when they were young guys getting started at Sun, listening to records together. That was beautiful to me.

With Del Shannon - and I've got to tell you this - there's nobody probably on the face of the earth that I identified more with musically. We used to sit and sing George Jones and Hank Williams tunes.

All the musicians I loved growing up were men. I loved Leonard Cohen, Mick Jagger. I loved Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys. Even today, I love Van McCann from Catfish and the Bottlemen and Matt Healy from The 1975.

Bill Withers and Curtis Mayfield, those are the people who informed me in playing the bass.

As far as heroes thorough the years, I'd say definitely Alabama and Randy Owen, Conway Twitty was a big influence of mine, George Strait, Lionel Richie.

I grew up with the Grand Ole Opry, Dottie West, Conway Twitty, Buck Owens... not realizing it was influencing me as much as it was.

There were a whole lot, I bought every blues record I could find, it wasn't just one or two people. My vocal influences were Ray Charles and Bobby Blue Bland.

Travis Scott is definitely a big inspiration. Lil Wayne was a big one. Lil Wayne, 50 Cent. Those were my two, like, big ones growing up. Then I got into Mac Miller, Wiz Khalifa phase.

Willie Nelson, Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard and Keith Whitley - guys like that were huge influences.

My nana is a real life mentor, and so is Brad Paisley and a few other idols in country music.

I love Loretta Lynn, and I love Roy Clark and Johnny Cash, everybody.

I think when we were starting out, it was more about imitating our songwriting heroes. We would try to write songs like Neil Finn, or we would try to write songs like Ray Davies, or we would try to write songs like Glenn Tilbrook.

Growing up, I became a huge fan of Freddie Mercury, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins. That's where I really started developing my songwriting skills on a personal level.

George Jones, Johnny Paycheck all them dudes they're respected and they were twice as crazy as I'll ever be.

I love Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Adele.

Hearing Radney Foster was big for me, like hearing Al Green or R.E.M. for the first time.

Everything I know, I stole directly from Ace Frehley, Angus Young, and Keith Richards. That's how you learn.

I love so many different types of music - hard rock, bebop, jazz fusion, R&B. And I've loved meeting and painting so many amazing artists like Lionel Richie, Ronnie Wood, Sia, Steven Tyler, Swizz Beatz, Taylor Swift, James Moody, The Fifth Dimension, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Michael Jackson. It makes me smile thinking about each one of them.

I think Kenny Chesney or Garth Brooks would be the coolest duet partners. I look up to them so much for their work ethics.

Dylan's relationship with Johnny Cash was the biggest influence on Nashville in my lifetime - they opened up country music.

I'm big fans of all those musicians, B.B. King, Mick Jagger - they're all on my iPod.

As a kid, looking at Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, New Edition, the Temptations, Motown, people who I felt were huge artists, they made me wanna do something.

I love Jimmy Bryant, and I love Albert Lee. Roy Clark. Chet Atkins. I love those pickers.

My mom was real into like a lot of different musical artists, real artists, even back when Jay-Z and Beyonce was together.

Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Neil Young and Bob Dylan are my main influences.