Van Morrison Quotes

When I first came out, country wouldn't touch me because I was way too rock, and rock wouldn't touch me because I was definitely country.

I've never been good at rock'n'roll songs, anyway; either I'm blessed or I'm cursed, but whatever I write comes out sounding old.

The biggest question I have is if you're a rock singer or a rock 'n' roll band, or if you're a pop singer... if you've made your way in another genre of music and now you want to make a country record, why? That's my question. Why?

I don't have any desire to do something that sounds explicitly rock. Like, I don't have a burning need to be a rock musician. I feel like I've taken that as far as I can take it, for me.

I love rock music, I love country music - I love all music, let's be honest!

I dropped the 'Bundy' with my country music because I wanted it to be two separate things: There's me as a songwriter and a country singer, and there's me as a Broadway performer.

I never thought of myself as a rock singer. I was interested in songs like 'Heart Like a Wheel,' and I liked the others for about 15 minutes.

I have my own definitions of success. And I have my own definitions of country music that, luckily, I share with more people than I realized before.

I don't think I've changed anything in the country format whatsoever. But I'm not worried about it. I've found my place in it.

Country's more than about what the music sounds like. It's what you're saying and who you are as a person.

I hear some new artists that sound country but the record labels and country radio lean more toward a more rock feel for what gets signed to a label and played on the radio.

I think of rock 'n' roll as a combination of country blues and swing band music, not Chicago blues, and modern pop.

I feel like if you turn on country radio, you will find something you'll love because it's so diverse.And that's a great thing.

You come to a country music show and it's like a rock show, it's so different, it's just not what people think it is, it's really cool and I think that if people just give it a chance they'd see that it's really cool and I think that's what people are finally starting to see.

There's room for everyone. There's room for pop country, for 'rock & roll' country, for stone-cold country, and everything in-between. Great music is great music.

There are guys in country music who are wizards on the guitar. If you're a country fan, you're used to it. But as a rock guitar player, you listen.

"Country" has become a marketing term. I see myself as a songwriter.

I'm glad people think I'm a badass. I'm a rock and roller, and I'm an R&B and a blueswoman. I don't do fairy music, although I love Celtic music and sensitive music. There's a balance between ballads and kick-ass songs.

Just because I don't sing about the normal country themes doesn't mean my songs aren't country. I'd rather sing about having fun.

I have always touched on different genres whether it has been hip-hop, country and the rock element.

The vocals are the very last thing I do. So, it's kinda the opposite: with country. it's singing and guitar first, but with rock, I worry about the riff and music, vocals last.

Rock music was never written for or performed for conservative tastes.

I never really liked the lyrics or the sameness of the music. It always seemed to have the same rhythm or whatever. But when it turned a little more rock, I kind of liked it. I like what Kid Rock did to country. I like all the modern, new stuff that's coming out, and it just so happens that my boyfriend is not a country player, but he was a rock musician.

I play these [folk acoustic] concerts and I ask myself, 'Would you come see me tonight?' - and I'd have to answer truthfully, 'No, I wouldn't come. I'd rather be doin' something else, really I would. That something else is rock... The words are pictures, and the rock's gonna help me flesh out the colors of the pictures. (1965)

The female rock-'n'-roll-country-pop songwriter is back, and her name is Taylor Swift. And it's women like her who are going to save the music business.