Johnny Cash Quotes

I fell in love with music at 13-years-old. I wanted to be a singer at first and a drummer. Then I fell in love with rap music.

Well, I think the first piece of music I ever heard that I really loved was 'Salome's Dances' by Richard Strauss. I played that 12-inch, 78 record, and I stood up on an ottoman to play it on a big Victrola and I'd just keep playing it and playing it.

I was first influenced by a friend in fifth grade when he brought a Walkman to school and was listening to 'Paradise City' by Guns 'N Roses, which he had concealed within his hoodie. He put the headphones over my ears and I was completely blown away by what I heard. I'll never forget that.

When I was seven, I saw 'Sister Act 2,' and I fell in love with the performing aspect of music.

I don't write songs, songs write me. ... Writing a song can be agony or ecstasy. It can take half an hour or half a year. ... The popular song is America's greatest ambassador.

I actually didn't find out about a lot of music until I was older. Some people have been listening to the Beatles their whole lives; I didn't discover them until I was 18 years old.

I would have found something because I love to entertain people. I had the option to take the rest of the year off. But I said the songs on my last solo album, '24 Karat Gold,' mean so much to me. I need to get out there and sing them.

It doesn't matter what kind of music you like or what kind of person you are or what you're used to listening to, or whether you know me or not. It doesn't matter, either way you can be inspired by it [my songs]. Each way I want to make it relatable to that group, but most of all keep the inspirational part of it, for sure."

I was probably five years old or four years and I would listen to "White Christmas," and I just thought it was the most beautiful thing ever. The musicianship and his voice and the melody of that song; it's almost like I wish it wasn't a Christmas song because I wish that you were allowed to listen to it all year.

I remember when I was 14, I went to race in Hungary, and I went to a concert, and they were playing Bob Marley songs, and I thought, "Wow, this guy is so special." It's Marley every time.

I fell in love with folk music at Surprise Lake Camp. It was the songs of Woody Guthrie and the Weavers.

I remember when I was 5 or 6 years old, gospel music felt familiar, like I had heard it in the womb or something. A lot of those old gospel songs still give me that feeling, that it's older than time and there's actually music that can tap into a universal subconscious, or whatever word you want to put on it.

And I remember that about three years before that, her first record had come out. And I just remember really liking this one song off it called "In My Bed" and being a little bit enamored. This, you know, this young kind of Jewish girl from North London, you know, I have the same thing - from a Jewish family from North London - with this incredible voice.

My little boy (Sasha) is now one-year-old and that makes it easier for me to go back to the studio and work on creating new music.

I never had any other thought in my mind. I was gonna write songs, I was gonna be a star and a singer and I never thought of doing anything else.

Music is the first thing I ever cared greatly about. I've been singing and writing songs since I was six or seven.

I look at some of the songs I wrote years ago and I can't believe I wrote such crap.

We're often afraid to do anything unless we know we can do it extremely well. But we get to Carnegie Hall by practicing. I remember how freeing it was several years ago to read in an interview with Joan Baez that some of Bob Dylan's early songs weren't so wonderful. We have this image of genius springing fully grown out of Zeus' forehead.

Each Desaparecidos's song has a seed that it came from. We're trying to take that and broaden it out and make it resonate with people.

It has affected me very much in the last 10 years. I get it from my grandmother. She was very superstitious as well. I'm funny about numbers. It's become a phobia, so I have to watch it. It affects your day a lot. Before I go on stage, there are certain things I do that are semi-sort of Gypsy superstitious things, but I'm coping with them. It hasn't affected the music, thank God. If you got really bad, you'd say "I'll pick that note instead of that one or sing this song before that.

I listen to music all the time. I write while listening to music. And I tell myself that the music nourishes the art forms that I do master and domesticate, and have authority over.

It's a good time to say "Oh" and take stock and say, "Gee, how was I ethically this year?" That's the problem with faith, Joe. What it does is it kind of screws up your priorities. Your priorities shouldn't be saving your own ass, which is the focus of Christianity. The focus should be, I'm a good person, and I do that just for the sake of being good. Like the Christmas song says, "Be good for goodness' sake."

I have a song I wrote called “Autobiography.” I came from a very intense living situation, with having a parent on drugs and not having a lot of money. So I always want to talk about the real things. But I think 90 percent of my music, I want it to be 'feel-good music'. I'm already recording tracks for my album, but when it comes time to actually say, 'this is the album,' I may be in a completely different space than I'm in right now.

I'm listening to so much. I looooove Alicia Keys' song, "Unthinkable." I'm blasting that all over the place, but I'm also listening to Sade, and I always have my Heavy Metal, Mastodon.

I think at times the very strong feelings I have about my country coincide with my musical ability, and I'm able to actually turn it into music, a song or even hopefully a memorable song, sometimes. You may find it surprising, but I'm a very intense, proud American. I love being an American.