Mandy Patinkin Quotes

I was around a lot of gospel as a kid.

I just wanted to sing, in church or wherever.

The most consistent musical experience I had growing up was church music.

Music was brought up in the church.

We weren't allowed to have secular music in the house growing up. I was home-schooled, and gospel was the only choice we had.

I believe that gospel is more than just a sound, it's a way of life. I don't really have any shame to talk about spirituality in my music. A lot of your favorite soul songs started out in gospel.

My father's a deacon, my mother's a choir director, so I grew up in the church and singing in the choir, begging my mom if I could have a solo.

Yes, the audience is so important to Negro music, especially the element of call and response.

I was a big fan of black gospel. As a kid, there were black groups I sang with from my teen years to my early 20s.

What I learned about singing in the church has gone into what I do now.

The black church in the South is the home of rock & roll.

So many great singers we know have come from the church.

I grew up singing in church. I've been doing that since I was 3 years old. Singing was a blessing for me to do.

Gospel music in those days of the early 1930s was really taking wing. It was the kind of music colored people had left behind them down South and they liked it because it was just like a letter from home.

Oh boy, I grew up hearing Sam Cooke, The Soul Stirrers, Mahalia Jackson, sitting on Mahalia Jackson's lap in my dad's church.

When you listen to my music, you hear that there are all these voices going on in different parts of the song. That's because I was always around so many voices in church.

I grew up loving music, like, loving it. I was involved in church choir, leading worship and all the choirs in my school - even glee club.

Whether looking at pop music, hip-hop or R&B, it's rare to find an artist who hasn't been touched or affected by the power and soul of gospel music. In fact, many of today's popular artists such as Whitney Houston, John Legend, and Katy Perry started their careers in the church choir.

Like all soul singers, I grew up singing in church but sometimes I would leave early and sit in the car listening to gospel band, The Blind Boys of Alabama. Hearing their lead singer Clarence made me connect the idea of church and show business and see how I could make a career singing music that stirred the soul.

Gospel music allows us to become closer to God and closer to each other.

I grew up listening to spiritual music, Blind Willie Johnson and folk.

I remember singing around the house to records that were playing. All kinds of music. And the great James Cleveland was often in our house, and I grew up with his sound as well.

I went back and researched the history of gospel; where it came from, slavery times, communicating with each other without their master knowing what they are saying, and that gospel artists view themselves differently.

I have been singing gospel music since I was four years old.

What is normally called religion is what I would tend to call music - participating in music, listening to music, making records and singing.