Benji Madden Quotes

I was signed to a record label when I was younger. I was in a group, and I just wasn't - personally, I wasn't ready to get out there. I don't know. It was a pop group. Not like the Spice Girls, but when you don't have any control over anything, it's disheartening.

When I got into the music industry, I wasn't focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup.

I never sought out a record deal. It caught me with my pants down. I was just a musician doing my thing, I didn't even send my records out.

Some people choose to go on 'American Idol' or another singing contest, and some people choose to beat down barrooms before anyone even knows who they are, in order to get a fan base, so when they do get a record deal, they have that to put in front of a label.

I've been able to experience so many things since I've had my record deal.

I got really noticed by record labels and that's how I got signed.

It was actually really hard to get a record deal after 'American Idol.'

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.

I just think that any person who wants music to be their career shouldn't focus on a record label. I have seen friends who sign to a label too early in their career, and they lost control over their music, and their releases were delayed or never put out.

I put a song on Soundcloud, and Annie Mac made it record of the week, and a month later, I signed my record deal.

I was 19 when I wrote 'Dreams,' and that would have been when it started to happen. The band got signed, and I was probably beginning to see different things besides my small town of Ballybricken.

I didn't move to Nashville with any inkling or dreams of getting a record deal. I didn't have those stars in my eyes. I just wanted to take a break, relax, and figure out songwriting.

Yeah, well I've had a record deal for a long time so I'm kinda used to the cameras and the people, I'm used to dealing with peoples' opinions.

Even before I got the record deal, I never really used singing to get girls. I always felt weird about that.

When I first got the record deal, I thought it felt like I won the lottery. But I always worked hard at it.

A record deal is my dream.

When Alcatrazz played in Japan in early '84, the record label offered me the opportunity to do a solo album while continuing to play in the band. I wanted the whole album to have vocals, but the record company didn't want that. Initially, the album was released solely in Japan.

When you find fame, or you get signed to a record label, it's not what you imagined - because you imagined they would have 100 percent trust or faith in you as an artist. Unfortunately, that's not really the case - it's what sells.

Signing to a major label was an experiment for us. It was a challenge: working in a big studio with a producer was a challenge in a lot of ways. It all shaped what the band went on to become through the '90s. After we made 'Goo,' we went out and toured with Neil Young in ice hockey arenas for three months, and that was the same kind of thing.

When I left college, it broke my mom's heart, but I knew I had to be in Nashville. I knew that was the place you had to be in to become a better songwriter, and that's what I wanted to move there for and to ultimately get a record deal.

It's a sense of pride, a sense of you set out to get a record deal, and we got that. We set out to get a No. 1 record, and then we got that. Then you say, 'Wow, that was impossible and now even more impossible is to stay No. 1 and stay current and put out new records that people care about,' and we really stuck to that.

We were extremely lucky that someone discovered us as a band and that we got to experience a type of cinderella story.

I was really young when I signed with Spinnin' Records, and the huge success of 'Animals' hit me by surprise. I didn't expect my life to turn like that at all. But it was a very welcome surprise, to say the least!

When you're 17 and a record label says, 'Hey, do pop,' you listen.

Obviously, my label would want me to be on the radio all the time, but that's not my personal goal.