Musician Influence Quotes

Definitely one of the biggest influences on my music is the music that Ben Gibbard's associated with, so Death Cab and The Postal Service.

What influenced me was Tori Amos, who was unapologetic about expressing anger through music, and Sinead O'Connor. Those two in particular were really moving for me, and very inspiring, before I wrote 'Jagged Little Pill.'

Without Metallica, I wouldn't be doing what I am doing. I have every Metallica record, of course, and I would spend hours on drums in my parents' basement with the stereo behind me, cranking those records and learning Lars' drum beats, beat by beat.

I think guitar-wise, Eric Clapton was a big influence on me. I got to spend time around him. He's kind of strange, mysterious, serious and he always has played such hot guitar.

T-Bone Walker was a big influence on just about every guitar player around.

Singers like Gladys Knight are mostly responsible for how I learned to sing.

I was reading an article about Kings of Leon's bass player, who said that he was directly influenced by Joy Division and by me. I was like, 'Woah!' It surprised me. It's a great compliment.

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

Bowie's obviously my biggest influence.

I'm the Chris Martin of hip-hop.

When I was 13, I was just figuring out how to play 'Eruption,' poorly, by Eddie Van Halen.

That was very flattering, meeting Steve Vai and hearing his stuff, because he was kind of a fan, even though we kind of dumbed down what he was doing and what people were doing in the '80s. We weren't doing solos; we were doing sounds and all this creepy, trippy stuff.

What draws people to the instrument is the love for guitar players that play a certain way. I mean, even though it wasn't intentional, it was hard to avoid copying Eddie Van Halen. He was basically the *bleep* back then.

Adele was introduced to me by a guitarist named Mike Hartnett that plays for a band called Rehab. We was just riding around, and he was like, 'Man have you heard this soul singer Adele?' and I was like 'Nah!' and we just rode to the whole CD, and it got to 'Hometown Glory,' and I was like, 'Man I have to sample that!'

I learned a lot from Jimmie Rodgers when I started trying to yodel.

James Brown became my father. He would talk to me the way a father talked to a son. He became the father I never had.

I was born in Swansea in the Principality of Wales in September 1934 and named Clive William John Granger. The 'William John' names were traditional Granger boy's names, and my mother liked the name Clive because some popular musician at the time had it.

Great musicians, you don't just hear them, you feel them. When I listen to Randy Rhoads, I feel every note. I learned a lot from him.

Bob Seger was a huge inspiration.

I learned a lot from Bruce Springsteen and David Chase.

A lot of the way I sing is playing off other musicians. It's what I love to do the most.

I grew up listening to Puerto Rican music like everybody else. But when I listened to Charlie Parker for the first time, I said, 'How does this guy play so fast?'

I love the music of Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu and more recently the music of Laura Marling. All these women share a strength and a wisdom in their voices and music that really makes me want to make music and sing.

Tori Amos had a major influence on how I craft words in a song.

Lemaitre has been one of my inspirations ever since I started making music.