Howie Dorough Quotes

They say the music you listen to in your formative years stays with you and leaves an impression for the rest of your life. For me, the things that I fell in love with happened in the '70s, when artists were nurtured by record companies and it wasn't about singles.

I was mostly surprised by the rap artists, actually, that were influenced by Sabbath. That was a surprise. But it's very nice and I'm very honored. It's nice to know after 27 years now that what I said in the first place has stuck, and that was the belief in it.

I am a big Beatles fan. And, you know, unbeknownst to anyone, I used to be one. But I have no problems of putting titles and lines from other songs in my songs, because they're great lines and great titles.

I just change with the times. I really don't have a say in what's going on. Music was here before me.

G.O.O.D. Music is just real tastemakers, man. Kanye's a real tastemaker. One thing that I feel is tight about G.O.O.D. is that a lot of people have their own style, and you can see that. My style is different than Pusha's, it's different than Cudi's. But it's also slightly similar 'cause we have some similar tastes.

I am the architect of rock n' roll. I have to be a fan of all its forms.

Without Mac Miller, there would be no GoldLink.

Raffi doesn't have any grand theories about why his music has been so successful, but he credits a group called the Babysitters as early inspiration.

I guess when I was younger, I'd have assumed that in 2008 music would be full of great writers following in the tradition of the young great writers of the '60s and '70s, but it hasn't turned out that way, or at least there are no other writers around that I look at and think: 'Wow, I'm outclassed, I need to get out of this business.'

We got our start doing covers and I think, and hearing other people covering our songs is super flattering.

People need to put my music in a perspective where they use other established artists from the past, and almost all the names I see related to my music are great musicians.

Just to know that someone who's 15 years old is listening to my music and the work that I've done - it's definitely a blessing.

Everybody who I ever cared about has told me that they like my music: Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Al Green, The Spinners, Smokey Robinson. Everybody that matters.

My sisters and I like a lot of different styles of music, but we're inspired by real artists like Beyonce and Adele.

I enjoy looking at old photos of some of my favorite rock icons, but also get inspired from the younger bands that are coming up and really creating their own style, their own image.

Growing up I used to love bands like Free and ELO and the Rolling Stones. When Robert Plant got in touch it made perfect sense to me.

I'm very inspired by past music.

I think I skipped a lot of music, like when I was 17 or 18. I didn't know about a lot of new bands because I was so immersed in older music.

I think that there's always great music being made. Always has been, always will be.

I'm really into Sweet 75 right now, and I dig playing Nirvana, don't get me wrong. Even if Kurt never died, more than likely I'd be in Sweet 75 today still.

There are so many soulful singers, even the ones coming from London, like Adele and Jessie J, who are just amazing. It feels like a really cool time to be making music now.

I don't really hear much music these days that grabs me. I think there are a lot of reasons for this but the overriding one is that there aren't as many opportunities for a band to get good or experiment or start the next wave of something.

None of the jazz greats made music for the purpose of you going to check out music before them. Michael Jackson didn't make music so you could go check out Sam Cooke.

I listen to a lot of artists like Tori Amos, Cherry Glazerr, and Patti Smith, and I kind of wanted to follow in their footsteps, or at least try to be that genre-defining.

One of the things that's happened in the music I love over the past five, 10 years is that some people have gotten very old and continued to make music.