Matthew Ramsey Quotes

I've been wanting to sing for a long time. I've been singing all my life, and I've tried different record companies, but it seemed like - it was such a struggle and so hard to get out there. So, I said, 'I'm gonna go on American Idol and see how far it takes me.'

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.

When you're No. 1 or No. 300, you still get to play and write the songs.

I believe I could have had a career in the music industry without 'X Factor,' but it was an amazing platform that propelled me to where I am now.

I've had a wonderful career and shared the stage with Vince Gill, who was my second love.

And they just saw me on that and - from the time I was 11 until I was 12, I guess. And then when I had just turned 13, they asked me if I wanted to tour with Johnny Cash back East.

Back in I want to say 2011, Taylor Swift was on her 'Speak Now' tour. She was kind enough to bring me out as one of the openers on that tour. Between her and Miranda Lambert, who also helped me out that year, I got a pretty non-typical first tour as a fellow artist.

I was really close to being this guy who used to be in this band who is still playing and trying to get some recordings together, but I got really lucky.

Hillbilly Rock' was the song that opened the door and gave me a reason to get a bus and a band and cowboy clothes to go out there and figure it out in front of everybody. And the hits started coming.

I never thought in a million years I would be in a girl group, so I can't look too deep into the future.

If somebody needed a guitar player for a tour and I was free and it was the right situation, I'd do it and it would be good fun. There would be much less pressure if I just had to stand there and play leads.

I don't want to sell my soul or anything, but to go on a huge tour would be next level.

I keep reminding myself I'm the same guy who was lucky enough to get my break because Roger Daltrey commissioned me to write the songs for one of his earlier albums.

You can always spot the professionals. Taylor Swift, she knows what she's doing.

Luck has a lot to do with being a musician.

When my father was, you know, a very big artist in the 1970s and then later up through the '80s. And then I began playing guitar with him in the road in the late '80s until he retired in 1997. So I traveled the world with them for years, you know, and all around the world and got to meet some great people.

No matter what does, or doesn't, happen for me in the music industry, getting to play the Opry as a kid was always be a highlight of mine.

To reach the highest level you have to not just have a dream and focus but you also have to make sure you are writing great songs, and if you feel they're what you want to represent you, that is key. But getting out on the road is key. And get your music out there. Maybe something catches, maybe it gets picked up and used on television, you just never know.

I feel blessed that I got an opportunity to work with the likes of A. R. Rahman, Vishal-Shekhar among others.

I wrote a whole solo album and recorded some of it, even did a little tour with Sara Lee and Gail Ann Dorsey.

Three weeks into being in Hollywood, I was playing with Slash through an ad in the paper.

In each genre, I've been around the biggest. In pop I toured with Justin Timberlake, with reggae it was Sean Paul; I toured with Jay-Z and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's all an education for me, to see how they do it.

At Ferrari they didn't give me the space, and at Honda I had the space but I didn't have the machinery.

My first job in a country band was after I moved to California.

Since the moment I joined with Nightwish, I have been working non-stop.