Estelle Quotes

My A&R at Epic got fired the first week I got signed.

I'm signed to Atlantic through 300 Entertainment [Lyor Cohen's label]. That is my only contractual relationship.

My contract with mercury PolyGram Nashville was about to expire. And I never had really been happy. The company, the record company, just didn't put any promotion behind me. I think one album, maybe the last one I did, they pressed 500 copies. And I was just disgusted with it. And about that time that I got to feeling that way, Lou Robin, my manager, came to me and talked to me about a man called Rick Rubin that he had been talking to that wanted me to sign with his record company.

Once you're signed to a label you compromise.

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.

Well I know I was contracted to Polydor so they couldn't use my name.

I am in discussions with a label. We are talking about doing something.

To set the record straight for the God knows millionth time, we certainly didn't sign to Atlantic just for the money.

We'll look at a bunch of deals that are being offered to us, and we decide where to go and continue on I guess. It's not too early to start considering our options with other labels.

When I first came to New York I was a dancer, and a French record label offered me a recording contract and I had to go to Paris to do it. So I went there and that's how I really got into the music business. But I didn't like what I was doing when I got there, so I left, and I never did a record there.

When I was nominated for a Grammy, my label dropped me - I have a wariness about trying for a hit.

I remember telling the head of Warner Brothers that if they'd just make a video for 'Ol' Red'... and if it didn't work, they could drop me from the label.

I wanted it to be like Amy Grant, but it didn't pan out that way. My label actually went bankrupt, and I was left without a home.

It is great to have your own label; you can cultivate your own artists... I've worked with pretty much everyone I wanted to.

I was never officially signed with Akon, but it was a shopping deal. That was around the time he was going through some problems with his label at Interscope. I waited, but when a deal didn't happen, I just went out on my own.

What made me want to become a recording artist; I was the first artist that was repeatedly asked by a label to record with them. That label was Def Jam Records.

I certainly have gotten caught up in the music business at various times in my life, mostly because you want to get along with whatever record company you're dealing with. I don't want to be flaky. I don't want to be some temperamental, hard-to-work-with musician.

Sometimes when I have an idea, and I say, 'Okay, let's - it will be great, maybe, if I sing in English, a couple of songs.' Now, the record company and everybody's like, 'No way, you have to sing in Spanish.' And that's, you know, really good for me.

It's about finding great artists and being part of their careers.

I was honored I was signed to Sony. But later I felt like they weren't the right team.

Jimmy Iovine signed me personally to a million-dollar contract, and I lost my identity for a long time. That system is so predicated on making a hit, or you're out of here.

Being a pop-leaning, female artist, you'd think that I'd have my record company breathing down my neck and trying to control everything I'm doing. Actually, they've just kind of let me take the wheel.

I got out of the business because I went from being the biggest artist on my record label to someone they didn't even want to have around.

It's not an uncommon event for artists and labels to part ways - Patty Loveless, Vince Gill both did - and it often happens for the better.

That was American Recordings. I said, I like the name, maybe it'd be OK. So I said, I'd like to meet the guy [Rick Rubin ].I'd like for him to tell me what he can do with me that they're not doing now.