Clive Davis Quotes

I still love to do the old songs. I know some people don't.

I think we're in a disposable world and 'Stairway to Heaven' is one of the things that hasn't quite been thrown away yet.

You look back at people like Elvis and The Beatles and still get their music because it's timeless. That's what I want.

He is irreplaceable. Even in death I have no doubt that Johnny Cash will continue to live on as an inspiration to musicians and songwriters and all of America.

That's why I don't necessarily enjoy it when bands cover other songs. You'll never recreate what has been done, especially if it's something that's legendary and classic.

A great song will be great forever - it's timeless and classic in that way.

Since the whole world is now concerned more about K-pop, I want to make more great songs which can be listed to as classics.

Anytime an artist puts your name in a song, it's unbelievable. It never gets old.

I am probably the last of a generation able to gain an education in country music by osmosis, by sitting in a '64 Ford banging the buttons on the radio.

I grew up in the '70s, and I hear in my own stuff a lot of what I grew up listening to, which is to say I hear a lot of Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder.

Music isn't like news, where it's what happened five minutes ago or even 10 seconds ago that matters. With music, a song from the 1960s could be as relevant to someone today as the latest Ke$ha song.

The Men at Work thing is always there, it's always going to be there. It's not something I consciously think that much about anymore. The thing that stays with you is the songs, which is a good thing for me, because the songs are the things that stand the test of time.

The quality of our lives is diminished every time we lose a great artist. It's a different world without Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Curtis Mayfield, Brian Jones and the rest.

Once you're a Motown artist, you're always a Motown artist.

Pop changes week to week, month to month. But great music is like literature.

On the musical side, I always wanted to kind of carry on Pink Floyd's sound. You know, Pink Floyd always had such an original, creative and masterful sound, but there are no new albums. My thought was that there's a way to keep their sound alive.

People in England were coming up to me, saying, My mother and father turned me on to your music. This happened to me 20 years ago. When I was 40 they were saying that.

I've always loved War's Low Rider and Sly Stone's Thank You, and I just wanted to put my take on them.

I guess I'm a real fan of older music, and that's what shaped my taste and the way I sing.

Elvis' songs will always be there, and I hope mine will be after I'm gone.

If 'Bobby McGee' lasts, if 'Star Is Born' lasts, if 'Help Me Make It through the Night' lasts, if all of 'em last, man... who cares?

My dad and my mom were big Nat King Cole fans, so they had everything he did.

A group of artists in Ivory Coast recorded a song about me.

I want to create songs that will last across time.

The thing with Berry and Duane and the rest of us in the original Allman Brothers seemed to be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. When Duane was killed, we knew we lost a great part of that, but we still managed to play some great music.