I consider myself lucky that Sonu Nigam, Bikram Ghosh and Taufiq Quereshi came forward to create an original soundtrack to promote my book, something that hasn't been tried here before!
When I had my television show, 'Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters,' it was my high hope to convert people to country music. It is wonderful and contagious!
There are not many musicians from India who are working internationally in pop. My aim is to change that and show the world that we have so much more to offer.
It's not about what hits Billboard or how many views you got on a video. It's about copies sold. It's about streams, you know?
I feel very lucky to get to fly the flag of RCA Records and Sony Music.
I always hated how I looked on camera. I never put a face to my music, which actually made the music that much more mysterious.
Record labels and producers are not looking to change you: they are looking to make a star. And what they might think is a star may not be you.
Pantera is a marquee band, with the most diehard fans. We sold over 20 million records without MTV or radio.
I even have nephews who make music, my daughter makes music. I don't know what advice to give them these days. It's really a tough industry to break into.
I really felt like 'Chandelier' was a big pop song. But we weren't sure what would happen if I wasn't willing to show my face and do promo and go on tour and do the traditional kind of pop strategy. So I had no expectations.
The desire to hit a big home run is dominating the music business.
If you're a pop singer, you don't need to evolve. You just get a set together, have some hit songs and play them over and over.
I think 'Interscope' always puts the artist first, and they're focusing on these artists' development. I felt like that was a part of my career that I kind of needed to focus on after having come from the radio and getting exposure that way. I wanted to grow my brand and grow my fanbase, and they have proven to be the best fit for that.
When you do mixtapes, a lot of times your fanbase can say, 'We've been getting this for free for so many years, his new album is about to drop, we've listened to it, and we're not going to buy it. We'll download it for free.'
When I was signed, that was before the punk thing even happened.
Chance The Rapper makes some of the greatest music out, and he build his brand up organically, and the fans have reacted to it.
I remember when I first came out as an artist, back in 2004 or 2005, the record label used to take me to all the radio stations and just have me sit in, like, their lunchroom or their conference room, and play for the whole staff. Just to introduce them to me so they would play my records.
Good bands won't get famous anymore unless they get really lucky.
In a way, the traditional album is no longer as important as it used to be. But at the same time, I don't want to be the kind of artist who just releases one song after another.
I can still make a living with touring. And maybe you buy a t-shirt. And I would rather 10 million people get my record and listen to it for free than 500,000 that I coerced to pay $15 for it, you know?
I knew it straight away when Twitter first came around, and also Facebook, where it was so easy to post, that this was another way to speak directly with people listening to my music. If they found my music and they like it, most likely they want to hear more from me and hear what I'm about. I've put an enormous amount of time into that and it's played out well for me.
I'm always going to talent scout and try to find new artists to work with.
We were the ones that from the beginning said that 'Wide Open Spaces' was a hit. 'This is a hit, people are going to relate to it.'
It really does help everyone when there are some big bands leading the charge.
I have had the good fortune to experience both the limelight and the traffic light as a musician. I did my first recording on my own and it was available at concerts. The second to seventh were released on small and then large labels. My eighth to 14th were done under my own steam once again, but with the benefit of the Internet.
