J. D. Souther Quotes

My mother was the first singer I had contact with. She sang constantly to us around the house, in church.

I grew up with singers. My father's mother sang opera. My dad was a big band singer. I can't remember a time there wasn't music in the house, so I grew up listening to great songwriters - George Gershwin, Cole Porter - and my grandma was playing opera for me before I was 3.

Seriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and jazz in the home all the time.

I watch Renee Fleming a lot. I listen to Renee Fleming a lot. She was like my built-in master class.

My mother was into opera and my father was into jazz, so there was a lot of jazz in the house where I grew up.

My dad played music so I was around it at a really young age.

My father was a classical pianist, and my mother was a singer of just about everything.

Well, my sister played trumpet. Can you imagine having a sister blowing the trumpet around the house, Fred? And my brother, he played piano. Everybody was playing some kind of music, so it was natural for me to get into it.

Playing with my grandfather, grandmother and my parents, I came to music pretty naturally.

My family were all into classical music, and I found that very intimidating.

My parents met in music school and my father was a music professor and conductor. Growing up, we always had classical and contemporary music playing. There was a lot of Mozart and the Beatles.

Pops, he was a singer's singer. I loved to hear my father sing. He just was so laid-back and cool. I always wished I could sing like Pops.

I was born out of classical music.

From the first moment that I can remember, I had identified myself as a bass player and it had everything to do with my father, who was a bass player. And he loved music, you know, as much as anybody I've ever seen. And that dynamic I just thought as somehow was a straight pass to me.

I am the daughter of the Chairman of the Board and thus, was raised with great music.

I also have a big love of classical music played on piano because this is the environment I grew up in my brother being one of the great masters in this world.

My dad was a musician. He was a singer and he played the guitar, so music was always around.

Music just runs in my family. My dad and my uncles are a gospel quartet, Latimore Brothers. They've been doing their thing ever since I was a kid, so I just kind of grew up around that.

My mother was a singer, and both of her sisters were singers. There was always music around.

I always sang when I was little and my father, who was a great influence on me, also had a wonderful voice. He and my mother really encouraged me to sing and play the piano. They were always very supportive.

So I was always around music and my dad was in his own way a progressive jazzer, a big band jazzer guy.

You must remember I grew up around music. Three of my family were musicians.

My grandmother sang, too, and she was really loud. It was this wild kind of singing. I count her among my influences.

Jazz is a constant theme in my life. My father is a jazz pianist, and from an early age I have been surrounded by it.

I've loved musical theater ever since I was a kid. My mother's a pianist, and my grandfather was an amateur theater director and stand-up comic. And I was an only child. And I loved attention. So from an early age, my family was teaching old musical songs.