Ryan Ross Quotes

I expect to make a career out of country music.

We built up a hardcore following, but we were really still semipro, gigging over long weekends and the like. So after EMI signed us, we packed in the day jobs because we had to make an album.

I didn't want to just be a rapper, I wanted to be a star.

You know, I didn't have enough money to quit my day job... the myth of the major label deal. Nowadays, you have a tour bus and a stylist and all this stuff. But back then, no way.

I worked hard all my life as far as this music business. I dreamed of the day when I could go to New York and feel comfortable and they could come out here and be comfortable.

I knew what I wanted to be, but I didn't know exactly how to get there. I thought you move to Nashville, you sing downtown, and someone discovers you, and you become a country music star. I had no idea.

I always wanted to be a rock star. That was my childhood dream. That's what I told everybody I was going to be when I grew up.

I want to be the president of Columbia Records, maybe C.E.O. - kind of like L.A. Reid.

Yeah, man I am going to be writing a book soon. The reality of being in a rock band in the music business'.

And I just pray that god gives me longevity in the music industry.

Since I was 19, I've said, 'I'm gonna sign for a million.'

I think that becoming a successful rock band is a little like becoming a professional athlete. Nobody plans on it.

I'm not desperate to sign, like, a record deal. I'm very hungry, but I'm just not desperate for it.

I want to be the guy with the fresh new sound. I can remember as a kid thinking about a DJ going, 'Ladies and gentlemen, here's the new one from Frankie Ballard. He's the guy with that hot new sound.' That's the dream.

I wanted to play in bands and get signed by a record label and tour the world and stuff, but that never really worked out.

Nobody is going to hand you a music career.

My number one goal is to take over the music business and run a really great record company.

When I was young, I was offered my first recording contract in 1971 and was offered quite a bit of money if I would change my character and be a '70s version of Cher.

All these interviews I'm doing - this is the kind of stuff that I was dreaming about doing when I was younger. I was praying for people to want to write about me. I wanted people to hear my music. I wanted to perform. I wanted to be on billboards.

To come out in the music business, you only really get one shot. A lot of people get to play small gigs first, and build up that way, without anyone really seeing them.

Growing up, I thought it would be great if I could do big theaters. Now we're doing arenas.

Well, I tried to get a record deal in 1966 or '67, and everyone thought I was too eclectic.

Always I was dreaming of a record contract. From 10 to 13, it was all I could think of. I worked hard for this dream. Nobody could say I didn't try.

My plan was always to leave school and live in a flat with some friends, have a 9 to 5 job, and try to get as many gigs as I could. I wanted to keep writing and then eventually, in my twenties, head to a record label and hope they'd sit down and listen to my book of songs, sign me as a songwriter and maybe an artist in development.

When I came back to California in the early '60s I was hanging out with Jimmy Bowen, Phil Spector, and I wanted to be a record producer and work with other artists.