When Def Jam wanted to sign Method Man, they wanted to sign Method Man and Old Dirty. And Old Dirty wanted to be on Def Jam - everybody, that was like the dream label. But if I had Old Dirty and Method Man on Def Jam, that's two key pieces going in the same direction, whereas there's other labels that needed to be infiltrated.
2015 has been a crazy year for me, and Spotify have supported me right from the start. It's an honour to be their Breakout Artist of the year, and I'm super excited to see what we can do together in 2016!
I would like to think that Ben and myself have begun a partnership that will take us into different areas of music that we can continue to write, enjoy and keep me involved with music other then what I do with RUSH.
Common and I have a long history of making great music together.
Me and my partner, Conway Twitty, cleaned up at the 1972 Country Music Association Awards.
Def Jam, they've shown nothing but love as far as supporting my records. We haven't missed yet, radio-wise, and every song that they've actually tried to support has been No. 1.
I do have to step out and take time to let people know that I'm Ronnie Dunn and not Brooks and Dunn.
My dream collaboration would probably be Sam Smith.
Mary Gauthier's great. Yeah, we've played a lot of gigs together. She's really wonderful.
In the past, when Jay-Z did 'Best of Both Worlds' with R. Kelly, I thought it was a great album, but the campaign went south because of personalities.
Yazoo was Vince's sound ultimately. At the time Vince and I got together he had only recorded one album with Depeche and Depeche were to go on to greater things.
I only ever asked two people to work with me as a partner. One was Paul McCartney and the other Yoko Ono. Paul and me were the Beatles.
It was important to me to find a label that wouldn't back out after a first single. Everyone's so used to hearing me with Hootie, they're going to be skeptical.
Actually, for 'Family & Loyalty' I wanted Drake on the track but he was about to go on tour for his Scorpion album, so timewise it wasn't going to work.
Honestly, recording with Faith Evans blew me away.
Pharrell loves music. When I'm with him, it's like I'm working with someone that I've known all my life, and we're both there to make the sickest track we can.
When I think of CeeLo Green, I think about previous collaborations, like 'Tears of Joy.'
Being in L.A., it was really hard to find a country writer and producer. I eventually - years of searching - found this guy, Dan Franklin. He's an incredible musician and producer. We write so well together... It's been a really cool experience.
Andy Rourke and I had been playing together from 14 or 15, and we had a very great musical chemistry. Andy's just a very respected and unusual musician.
Dylan's relationship with Johnny Cash was the biggest influence on Nashville in my lifetime - they opened up country music.
Working with Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson takes you up another level.
I think Ed Sheeran would be a great collaboration.
Everybody seen me talking to Frank Ocean, so they know something is coming, so something is coming with Frank Ocean - just wait on it - and, you know, people were just like, 'Whoa, Rich the Kid found Frank Ocean!'
My dream collaboration would be to work with Drake. Honestly, he's an amazing songwriter, and I feel like if we got the opportunity to do a song, it would be the most amazing thing to ever hit people's ears.
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.
