The biggest insecurity I had was my singing. Even though I had sold 70 million records, there was this feeling like, I'm not good at this.
The reason why I play around with the word legend is because this is my 7th CD and a lot of artists don't even make it that far. Many artists don't even pass three or four.
Yes, of course, I've been dreaming about it since I was a kid. Even now, I'm 31 years-old now and I've never been on a cover of a magazine. It makes you feel in such a way to do it with my signature guitar and to have it be Guitar Player magazine, it was really just an amazing experience.
I signed Jay-Z because he was on fire. I wasn't a genius. The record was great. I put it on The Nutty Professor soundtrack and we signed him.
[Miley Cyrus] got a fantastic voice. I do think she's a fantastic artist and does great songs. I wish her all the best.
Whoever makes big records is a winner to me. Not the person with the mumbo jumbo, or the biggest diss record, or whatever the case may be. In the end of the day, whoever is most successful, whoever puts out a big record, wins the battle.
Dizzee's just my childhood hero. He's definitely the inspiration. He's got himself to a very good place. He's defied the expectations of what British black urban music was like. He was the first person who made the rest of Britain realise it wasn't just a one-album-type situation. You've got to take your hat off to somebody like that.
Nobody's gonna beat Taylor Swift in a fan-voted thing. And nobody should, by the way.
No one really gets rich doing this. A couple people do, Black Sabbath does. We don't sell any records anymore.
'Smoke On The Water' was ignored by everybody to begin with. We only did it in the shows because it was a filler track from 'Machine Head.' But then, one radio station picked up on it, and Warner Bros. edited it down to about three and a half minutes. It then started getting played by lots of different radio stations.
I never had a doubt in my mind. I always knew that, with the right material, I could pop a hit.
You don't put your only No. 1 single on the last cut of side two!
I knew how the suits used to talk about the artists, with barely concealed contempt. So I knew what was waiting for me round the corner. Because I wasn't one of those very unusual people like Neil Diamond or Elton John, whose careers just seem to span the decades. I knew I wasn't one of them.
It would be fun to go back and see where all my songs stopped, because I think I'd have every number in the top 100. It never ceases to amaze me. It still hurts when one doesn't work, because you put your heart and soul into it.
I'm in this wave with Maddie & Tae and RaeLynn and Mickey Guyton and Cam. We're all kind of finding our niches and becoming successful. I think that it's just been really fun to be with them and do this all together.
I was 29 when we sort of broke through with Ghost.
Having two back-to-back No. 1's is unbelievable.
A defining moment in my life was my first actual VMA performance… That was the first time in my head I said I made it. Everybody knows who you are now. At that point everything in my life was flawless… I was just overwhelmed, I was happy, I was successful as an artist. I think I was in cruise control – like a little bit of bliss.
I don't make my living making records. Maybe someday I will.
I got a call for 'Aaya Na Tu' the same day that Forbes featured me in their list of 30 under 30. That day, I knew I had established myself as more than just a singer.
The reality of the music industry is that I was a 22-year-old college graduate who was able to walk into boardrooms and be the one in charge. It's incredibly empowering. I wasn't ready - I definitely was not ready - but I was prepared as I possibly could have been because I had studied the music industry.
I realize that I really have to make music work for me as a career because I can't do anything else.
Poison is one of the first, if not the first, truly independent bands to sell 3 million copies of our first record. It was before we were with a big company.
A lot of people, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and a lot of people have written for other people, and of course Bruno Mars. So I think it's a great way to break into the industry and show people what you can do and show them your talent and people tend to listen a little differently to your own music as an artist, when you've proven yourself as a good songwriter for other artists.
I've been really, really blessed. I got to perform on stage with Bob Dylan. I've gotten to sing with Mick Jagger.
