Tones and I Quotes

I began singing in dive bars and really small clubs. I dragged my piano down the stairs, and I went down the street with my keyboard, and I would go to every different dive bar that I could get to agree to let me play. I'd call and pretend I was Lady Gaga's manager.

Maybe if you see me begging on the streets, you might find me doing The Stone Roses the next day.

Without busking, there is no Fantastic Negrito.

I'd go to the farmers' market in Santa Barbara, and I'd put out my guitar case, and I'd test out these little ditty songs that I would write, and I would get a couple of avocados, a bag of pistachios, and, like, fifteen bucks. That was a lot of money for me.

The stage is my comfort zone, and playing live is what I've always wanted to do. It's why I want to do two hundred dates a year. I wouldn't feel that way if I were nervous onstage.

When I moved to the East Village in the late seventies, I wanted to be a street performer, so I practiced daily. I never did work up the skills or the courage to perform on the street, though.

I'm like a twenty-two-year-old kid in a new band trying to get noticed and break through, because the vast majority of people have never seen me play live.

When I had my first gig, I was 18 in January in 2007. My first gig that I got paid, I was playing for 10 people in a 250 people capacity venue. The promoter wanted to book me because he liked my music. I played a couple of songs that made people dance. To me, that rush has always stayed the same.

I was just a folk singer. I cut my teeth on the streets, you know.

As a busker, one thing that does not work is self-consciousness. A busker needs to be working. A busker needs to shed all ego and get down to work. Play your songs, play them well, earn your money, and don't get in people's way.

I'm so far removed from live playing any more.

Trying to get my music performed live by bar bands was a self defeating experience. It really just distracted me from what I should've been doing all along, writing and recording.

I've no grand designs to conquer the music industry, but I'd love to be able to tell my mates that I'm playing in a pub in Camden one night.

I was homeless and I was in San Diego and I started singing in a local coffee shop and people started coming to hear me sing.

I used to be a street singer in San Francisco.

No matter how much money I make, no matter how many hit songs. I still perform like a street performer.

When I was a street performer, before I had any songs of my own that anybody would stop and put in money for, I would always be doing covers. Even with covers, people wouldn't stop in the beginning.

In a typical day, I would wake up about 8 A.M., pile all my stuff into my mom's minivan - my guitar, my amp, CDs to sell, a table and a rug - drive it down to the street, and unload it all. I'd wait until about 12, then play for two hours. You could only play in two-hour intervals, so then I would move it all somewhere else.

I was on the train; I did play, but I also played in bars, in the streets, at birthday parties for people who discovered me on the train.

I'm lucky that I enjoy touring as much as I do. I'm not going to make a living just making records.

When you get the rush of live performing, it's hard to give that up.

Dance Monkey' is about the bad side of busking.

The only way I'm going to support my family is to tour. I love playing, don't get me wrong. That 90 minutes every night, that's free. We get paid to travel. But every night, I have to get myself locked in. There are a thousand people that don't want to be disappointed, because they have a lot of expectations.

I worked in retail for a bit and then I busked for two years. As soon as I started, I thought, 'I'll do busking until I'm 50 because this is the best job in the world.'

I'd get a train to some town and wander about to find a decent spot. Sometimes I'd play for three hours; sometimes I'd get moved on after three songs.