Music Mentor Quotes

When I was in Utah there, first learning the kind of music I love, my favorite singer was T. Texas Tyler. So my friend, Norman Ritchie, the traveling teenage sage, started calling me U. Utah Phillips.

I looked up to Too Short before I was making my own music.

Most singers have their idols. I remember Elvis Presley when I was a kid. When I was about sixteen, I always said I wanted to do 'Love Me Tender.'

Well, the teacher I studied with for nineteen and a half years was a man named Paul Gavert. He was a great lieder singer, so basically I'm a trained lieder singer because of that teacher. The teacher I currently study with - since 1995 - is Joan Lader, who also studied with Gavert.

I think my biggest musical hero growing up was probably Ian MacKaye. He set a great example for all of us local musicians. Still, to this day, I see him as the best example of a right-on musician.

I never thought, 'Oh God, I'm in Prince's shadow.' He'd been performing for years, and he was my teacher.

If it wasn't for Kenny Rogers, I don't think I would be in country music. He was that guy when I was a kid - his music and 'Hee Haw' made me perk my ears up and made me say, 'What is this? I want to hear more of that.' He was that catalyst for me to start this whole run in country music.

G-Rock from the Westside, from Allen Temple. He gave my name, The Future; he was like, 'Man, you the future.' Just stuck with the name.

The music teacher came twice a week to bridge the awful gap between Dorothy and Chopin.

I could not see myself going back into the studio without Tommy Dowd, our beloved producer who passed away in 2002. Then in 2009, Michael Lehman, my manager, really pushed me to meet with T Bone Burnett. I ended up meeting with T Bone in Memphis, and we hit it off right away; I knew he was a guy I could work with.

Rick Rubin had his hair - I don't think it's ever been cut and very - dresses like a hobo, usually - clean but . Was the kind of guy I really felt comfortable with, actually. I think I was more comfortable with him than I would have been with a producer with a suit on.

Andy Grammer is probably the closest friend I have in the music industry, so touring with him was just incredible. He's such a soulful, kind guy, and he gives great advice. And he also scares me a lot. He does a lot of pranks.

Bud Johnson, God rest his soul of fame, a tenor saxophonist. Bud was always a big, big, big booster of mine and he always when I first met Bud in Pittsburgh when he came through there, he heard me sing and he wanted me to come to Chicago.

All my musical influences came from my mom, who did everything to music. She played it 24 hours a day, seven days a week in our house. So that's where my love for music came from.

I got my first trumpet when I was six years old, from Al Hirt. My father was playing in Al Hirt's band at that time.

Ustad Ghulam Ali has been a huge influence and has guided me constantly. In fact, it was he who suggested I change my stage name to Javed Ali from Javed Hussain.

When it comes to musicians, I'm like the daddy of musicians here in Cuba.

I like Simon Cowell - look at how many great artists have come out of the U.K. because of him.

I've known Pinchas Zukerman since he was a teenager.

I was very fortunate to have a wonderful woman as my voice coach when I started singing professionally. I was only 19, so now it's been 60 years!