Jerry Garcia Quotes

I am in a business that's built on record sales and reputation and how your single is doing and where your song is on iTunes. But the kind of music that I do comes from my beliefs.

I'm in a very good place to make records. Needing to make money off music is very dangerous.

In the music industry, we value large success. I realized that while I would like that, that it's not what my writing is about. And if I start making it about that, it becomes impure.

I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.

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.

The joy of songwriting only gets messed up if you are trying to follow up a big success, or you are trying to create a hit single, or if you have conscious thoughts of a particular outcome for the music.

I am very aware now that music is a business, but there is also a way to go about making music that is true to yourself as opposed to doing, you know, just going through the motions and making things that would just be commercially successful.

The artists in country music who stopped having hits are the ones who were led into something that wasn't them.

I never thought of having platinum albums and winning awards. I just wanted to write songs and sing when I started out in the music business.

I happened to come along in the music business when there was no trend.

I look up to Tegan & Sara, obviously, Adele and Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks. All these artists are strong in their convictions, and they haven't changed who they are for the music business.

At the same time, I definitely want to expand my fan base but not at the expense of prostituting my music or heart.

The record business is dangerous to the health of bands and individuals, which is something I'm just now learning. But it's not dangerous in any of the ways people think; it's not that they try to make you compromise your art. That's not the problem.

No one starts playing my kind of music to make a fortune. But I do want to keep doing what I do and I do want to continue selling records. And I would, eventually, quite like some money.

Unfortunately, music devolved instead of evolved. The music business got into the hands of lawyers and accountants rather than the entrepreneurial creative people, and that's when the beginning of the end started. It's all based on money instead of art and creativity.

I'm in the music business for one purpose - to make money.

All through the kind of late '80s and '90s, every A&R record company man was saying, 'Now what we want is another record like 'Back in the High Life.' And, of course, that's not the way to make music at all. That's the tail wagging the dog.

You see there's music and there's the music business - and they're different.

Tears for Fears was always very personal, but at the same time, it was always big business, a lot of pressure.

The business has changed so much that they're able - we're able these days in the music industry to be able to control our own destiny.

When no one's buying your records, it's easy to justify selling a song. But once you start selling records, you can't really justify having two songs in Cadillac commercials. It looks greedy. And it is greedy. This whole music thing should be about music.

I would rather fall flat on my face than try to just make a quick dollar by making music that fits into the radio format right now. It does nothing for me.

I work so I don't need to make rent through my songs, and I think if more people engaged with music without needing it to provide for their welfare, you're not beholden to anyone.

As for the music business itself, the key things have not changed that much. It operates like any business and money still keeps things moving.

When I came here it wasn't that I was anti-Music Row, but it was like I was going against the grain of what everybody on Music Row was doing, and that's what has made me successful.