Chris Rea Quotes

The record company stay out of my way. Whenever the record is finished, they take it.

Well, I was making a record, and I had to choose a name, because they said, you know, you can't make a record under the name of Reg Dwight, because it's never going to - you know, it's not attractive enough.

I am not a piece of hash. I'm in charge of Factory Records. I think.

I certainly don't want to be a record label guy.

That's my favorite subject because it really levels the playing field for artists these days. You don't have to sell out to the record company. You don't have to get a five hundred thousand dollars, or whatever, and pay them back for the rest of your life to record a record.

I have just enough people paying attention that I have the freedom to be in charge. And I have a great record company - Nonesuch understands what I'm about.

I was signed by L.A. Reid on Arista Records when I was 16. He understood me and believed in me. Arista folded and I got put on RCA or whatever, then there were new people there, and every six months it changes and more new people come in.

I wanted to produce Nancy LaMott's albums, so I created my own record company.

I had a good record company right from the beginning, and I'm still with them after all these years. I think I may be the only person in the world that's had a tenure this long with any record company.

Roc was only supposed to be our distributor, but then they ended up recruiting me as the label's artist. They said they really liked my album 'Everything You Wanted.'

I think, actually, I was the first person to ever sign a simultaneous video and recording deal with a record company.

Def Jam just made deals with me. They wouldn't let me go because they didn't really have that much street cred. So they kept me around.

Giving a record company an album is like giving a gangster your baby or something.

I left the entertainment industry part of my life behind in 1983, when we decided not to work with major record companies anymore.

I had to get out of my record deal that I signed with my previous band and get a full solo record deal going so, with all of the paperwork that, that entails it did take a while.

I never, ever had it in my mind that I wanted to be in the record industry, because I still contend that the record industry is an insidious affair. It's this terrible collision between art and commerce, and it will always be that way.

I started my music career at 18 and for a long while I let other people handle my affairs.

When I was a teenager, I had a record company after me. They wanted me to be a pop act. They said they wanted me to be the next Sonia. I was 16 at the time. I said, 'No thank you.'

It's not like it used to be where everybody has a record company to belong to.

I have been with the record company and Tommy was there doing records with other people.

I suddenly realized that in order to do what I wanted to do, I had to become that which I hated - which is the head of a record company or a digital media conglomerate - and just do whatever you want.

Doing things in my day was simple: you either signed to a big label or you signed to a very small label, and you worked with that one, and then they eventually signed you on to a big one.

I love Interscope, I love Star Trak.

I love producing. I have been producing some acts and starting a label.

If you have good songs and a real desire to make music, the next thing to do, instead of approach record companies, is to get yourself a really good manager because then it allows you to focus on your profession of being a musician. Then they can focus on the darker art of the record label and the music industry.