Serj Tankian Quotes

Stevie Wonder's records introduced me to '70s soul when I was 12 or 13.

Barry White, Smokey Robinson and Curtis Mayfield are big influences for me. But I'm also a metal head. I was in a bunch of punk rock bands. The Bee Gees, hip-hop and the Beach Boys are just as much of an influence on me as Smokey.

I was inspired by James Brown, Michael Jackson and Prince.

I grew in the inner city, listening to Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, James Brown, The Commodores - lots of soul music.

I grew up listening to most of my parents' music like The Beatles and ABBA and all that stuff.

You always draw from your roots. I'm influenced by everything I hear and see, and that includes music today, but obviously I go back to my early influences: Stevie Wonder, Parliament, Earth, Wind & Fire, Ohio Players, Average White Band. Those kind of artists are what I look to. When I hear that stuff on the radio, I turn it up!

I was raised on pop music.

I love music, and a lot of it. Jazz is probably on the top with guys like Miles Davis. But I even enjoy music from the '60s and '70s.

My mom was a big fan of Al Green... James Brown we weren't allowed to listen to, so of course I knew James Brown.

I've always gravitated towards the beats, obviously. And when I was growing up, I always loved funk music or even - dare I say it - disco.

You know, the funny thing was that I grew up listening to, like Whitney Houston and Cece Winans, and a lot of American singers.

My heart is always listening to the music I grew up with from the '70s and '80s to early '90s.

I have a wide range of influences - I mean, first of all, I am a big, big fan of old soul music. Then, there's people like Donny Hathaway, Elton John... a diverse array of music.

I grew up listening to pop music with my dad in the car, and we'd just listen to Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Earth Wind & Fire, KC and the Sunshine Band - all that good stuff. So to see it snaking its way back around again is really exciting, and I love listening to the radio.

Even though I grew up playing folk music - and surf music, originally - I was listening to Motown and Stax on the radio as well. That music always resonated with me.

I feel like I love a little bit of everything. I grew up listening to the stuff my parents liked, from Earth, Wind & Fire, Luther Vandross, Billy Joel to Bruce Springsteen and The Mommas & The Poppas.

I stick to playing Brahms, but I love listening to Led Zeppelin, and I've also been a big fan of Earth Wind and Fire since the Seventies and of The Gap Band since the Eighties.

I've been a jazz artist playing pop and R&B my entire career.

Between my mom and dad, I would hear a lot of Earth, Wind, and Fire. My mom loved Chaka Khan, so that was on in the car a lot.

I grew up with go-go music. We wasn't really hip-hop fans.

I grew up on Queen, ABBA and at the same time, Nityasree.

In Denver, all we really had was pop radio, so I grew up on all that late '70s pop stuff - Billy Joel, James Taylor, Lionel Richie, Elton John, Steve Miller and Toto. Great love songs and really hooky and melodic music - I have all of that stuff in my heart.

Destiny's Child's harmonies remind me of Earth, Wind & Fire.

My music diet growing up was lots of sugar. Lots of retro-pop sugar. Motown, disco. A lot of English rock, like the Turtles, the Zombies, Bowie and stuff like that.

The first album I owned was probably a Backstreet Boys album, and shortly after was Shania Twain.