Michael Stipe Quotes

I feel I've had three careers in one, really. There was the 'Benny Santini' stuff; that came with a general sense of, 'Who the hell is he?' And then there was 'The Road To Hell' stuff, and now there's the blues stuff.

When this genre of music started in America, Metallica was up north in California, we were in Southern California, Anthrax was on the East Coast. We each developed our own metal music, and after 30 years, we're still playing our metal music.

Right after 'Desperate' sold to China, we were the most watched show around the world at the time. That's really something great to be a part of.

I felt like I could take the responsibility and make the Nas movement bigger and not keep it confined to the Tri-State area, so to speak. He allowed me to do that. When we were together, we made a lot of noise, and I made him an international star.

Like all bands, the first two albums are always the ones most written about, and the most covered. When a band gets to their third of fourth album, the story of the band has already been told.

The 'Inside' record definitely opened up a whole new audience.

Yes's whole career was never really planned in any sort of way. It's always sad when a member leaves, but it's exciting when someone new comes in, and that regenerates the freshness of the band.

The best part was watching Journey grow into this monster. The band was huge, playing these enormous gigs.

I think you have a crossover when you are known to a wider audience and a different market. I've been able to sell out stadiums all over the world by doing my music. I'm lucky to be in that list without having done an official crossover. Now, will you hear me doing a little bit of R&B? Sure.

Country music is worldwide - it's not just Nashville and Texas.

Even in America, we're not a huge act by any means, Major Lazer.

I have fans across the globe.

In my early days, I sang rock stuff, but the career didn't kick until '67.

The farther I go East in the U.S. the more I get recognized because of more sports crazy the East Coast is.

I want to make a good impact on the K-pop music world.

I was doing quite well in Malaysia... Everyone was so excited about my music, and they started accepting me as an artist.

The South Side loves me - I've got a song with Jermaine Dupri - and I've got songs on the East Coast and songs on the West Coast. Now, if I could just find me a rapper from up North.

We never really dreamed of being a band until it just naturally happened. All of a sudden, we were like, 'Maybe we should take this kind of seriously, because people seem to like it.'

I don't know what you wanna describe as Rock 'n' Roll, but I certainly thought that 60s stuff, Bob Dylan and the Beatles, changed the world a little bit. But the effect seems to have retreated. I think it's harder than we think to change the world. These things go in cycles. It doesn't seem to have done an awful lot of good, does it? You know, all the talk of racial harmony and equality in the world... we haven't got a long way since the 60s.

We're kind of an international phenomenon.

When I was about 13 or 14. I was in a Kingston Trio type group. We evolved into the New Breed. Our first song on the radio was "Green Eyed Woman," not to be confused with "Green Eyed Lady".

We've seen progressive rock all over the world, in South America, Europe, Asia, across the US and North America and Australia. There's huge audiences for this stuff. For me it's always been there and it's just a matter of time before the people have more of the means to spread the word.

The blues was so big in the late '60s that it kinda wore itself out, and people weren't diggin' the blues as much.

It is truly unbelievable to actually really know that I have fans all around the world.

The audience loves us! They buy out all our shows and really enjoy themselves but the press keeps right on bombin' us. We thought at first it was because our music was too Texan, maybe too different for East coast people to relate to. But anyone can relate to bein' drunk or missin' your woman.