I'm definitely inspired by Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, James Brown, Lauryn Hill.
I think a lot of bands are influenced by religious symbolism and not even necessarily Christianity or Catholicism.
I think we all love the music we listened to as kids the most.
If you noticed, I wear high-water pants and white socks, which is inspired by the mod '60s, like the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, what have you. That style of dress during that time is really, really dope to me.
They say the music you listen to in your formative years stays with you and leaves an impression for the rest of your life. For me, the things that I fell in love with happened in the '70s, when artists were nurtured by record companies and it wasn't about singles.
Nirvana, Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins, all those bands, at their core, are just really incredible pop music and I think a lot of that stuff has deeply affected the way I approach music.
I grew up singing Ray Charles and Jimmy Reed.
I can't think of another artist who has a fan base as diverse, in that the ladies in their 70s at the 4-H club have the same collection of Johnny Cash records as the punk on the street in Amsterdam.
Listening to the Beatles' music figures into pretty much all of my childhood memories.
I'm really into, like, characters - music characters like Sid Vicious and Kurt Cobain - just, like, how they are and stuff. Like Lil Wayne.
When I was around 11, my dad took me to see Santana live, and then I got 'Sacred Fire,' and everything changed for me.
Rza just used the whole synopsis of the karate flick and capitalised offa that around this music. Some things you find out and you compare to yourself, and you're like, 'Wow, it has so much comparison to it', you start to live like that. And that's what happened - we started callin' ourselves Wu-Tang.
I remember hearing Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Big Bill Broonzy, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and not really knowing anything about the geography or the culture of the music. But for some reason it did something to me - it resonated.
I grew up listening to a lot of soul music, and a lot of folk music.
I love rapping. I do. My styling's similar to Missy Elliott - I think she's so dope. In a weird way, that's how I first learned the American accent: doing American rap songs.
I love me some Mariah Carey. I grew up on that because of my mother.
I started dreaming of becoming a singer after seeing Michael Jackson in the 'Billie Jean' video. The mix of fantastic choreography and amazing music made such a huge impact on the music industry.
My dad loved black singers. So listening to New Orleans music, eventually I wanted to play an instrument.
Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck made me an Anglophile. I listened to English and Irish artists as a kid, and they were way louder, heavier, and faster than the traditional blues that I was listening to.
I didn't really have a mentor, but I have always definitely been inspired by the '70s - the Stones, Patti Smith, Anita Pallenberg.
Nas was a huge influence. That's probably my favorite rapper of all time.
It really does help everyone when there are some big bands leading the charge.
I wasn't a Prince fan until I watched Purple Rain. When I watched that, it was one of my favorite movies of all time because it shows the life of an artist.
I can never stop thanking God because my music influences people in their respective lives.
I listened to a battery radio, old country and pop stuff. Because I was singing all the time, my dad bought me a $7.50 guitar.
