If you're somebody who writes songs or writes fiction, a writer that people pay for your opinion in any way, you shouldn't be the least bit uncomfortable giving it to them. People want songwriters to tell them how they think and how they feel. That's what a song is. That's what I want to hear in a song.
Even in the beginning, when we knew there was a legal argument about how much our song sounds like his song, as one songwriter to another, I wasn't sure that Cat Stevens would take that as bad.
There are some songs we do, like "Last Chance," I love it! But sometimes you just don't like your voice on certain things.
A lot of people liked 'Amala,' and that's great. However, I don't think it was a finished album.
I didn't really feel that there were any filler tracks on 'The Red Shoes,' but if I were to do that album now, I wouldn't make it so long.
I don't want to say I hate remixes, because I don't, but I hate what instantly comes to mind now when people say 'remixes.'
It's funny, people ask me, 'What would you consider the most romantic track on your record Mr Caine?' And I say 'Swollen' by Bent, and they say 'I think he's off his rocker!'
My mother liked Jim Reeves. I hated his records. He was unbearable.
I have plenty of good friends that I think the world of - and Bob [Dylan] is one of them, and I like his music - but with some others... their music I just don't care too much about all of it. Some of it I like.
I hold all of the songs that I have had the pleasure of recording and performing in high regard.
I've never been into artists promoting drugs.
I don't see myself working with Lil Pump. He goes crazy though. We have two different sounds, but he goes hard.
Friendly Fires were dull, and I wouldn't really sit down and listen to Hot Chip.
Jim Morrison's very good looking, but I don't like this version of the song. The Feliciano version is better.
If it wasn't good, I wouldn't be going back out on tour.
As an artist I just think comedic actors are really underrated.
Pop just didn't have enough substance for me. All this nyah-nyah-nyah, you know, 'Paper Tiger' and 'Hold the Ladder, James' and 'Crimson and Clover.' That wasn't music!
More often than not, the fans really gravitate towards who's on the cover as opposed to how it's drawn or how it's composed, and so, a lot of the time, what an artist likes will be very different from what a fan likes.
I once asked Ozzy Osbourne, truly one of my favorite people in the world, if he was cool with singing Black Sabbath songs year after year, whether he was performing with Black Sabbath or out on a solo tour. He said it was great.
I'm not the biggest fan of my first album.
I don't sing songs on albums that I don't like.
We didn't have any problem with 2Pac. We liked his music.
I didn't enjoy 'Topographic Oceans' at all. It was a double album, and the truth is it was padded out, and I didn't like that. But I was a fan of Yes - still am - and as such, I'm entitled to say what I think.
People consider Black Star a great album, and I think it's a classic album. But the fact is, both me and Mos Def have made better albums since Black Star.
Most artists value my opinion a lot, and I think that's due to 'Beast Mode.'
