I thought, 'If I'm going to die, I'm going to videotape it.' So I got out my little video recorder and was taping goodbyes to my family.
The problem is that I don't want to add another record to the world that is not necessary to be published, except to make some business. There has to be a musical reason.
I think musicians and artists are the most philanthropic people I know. Their charity record of the music business would hold up to the work of anybody.
The record business has always mystified me. Sometimes there are reasons why things sell or don't sell that can't be understood by mere mortals.
We're probably doing better business than we thought we would do especially considering the disappointing way the record company has handled the album.
The record labels used to spend money on advertising, and social media has replaced that entirely - it's putting magazines out of business. It's put big companies into completely reinventing their strategies.
Everything around a writer, or musician in the record business, probably everything in all the United States or in all of western civilization, is about competition.
When I first heard Wallace Stevens' voice, it was by chance: a friend wanted to listen to the recording he had made for the Harvard Vocarium Series.
Yeah, anybody can go in with two turntables and a microphone or a home studio sampler and a little cassette deck or whatever and make records in their bedrooms.
I like to present something that the people haven't seen or haven't heard before. Otherwise they might as well just stay home and play the record.
When I'm at home, I like to put records on, but because I travel a lot, I listen to a lot of music on my iPhone.
But I'm always trying to plan ahead too and in doing so, and in working on this album, I've met a lot people that I hope to be involved with, on their records and in their situations.
I've got time, I hope, to make lots of quiet records. So quiet you won't be able to hear them.
I thought that I held the record of most appearances on the Bob Hope Show, but I think - It's Brooke Shields.
On taking office, Obama promised the 'most transparent' administration in history; yet his record as president has been anything but transparent.
Covering a historic event is perfectly legitimate. It's not sneaking into somebody's boudoir... These people belong to history, and not to record that if you have the opportunity would be wrong.
How could they call him wacko? He's sold more records than anybody in history.
The history of the Erie Railroad ever since 1901 has been a record of progress.
Well, we didn't have our original drummer on our last record. And most of that album was not played as a band in the studio. It was mostly the world of computers and overdubs. There was very few things played live or worked out as a band.
I'm gonna be making records anyway, even if I had to sell 'em out of the trunk of my car. I'm that kind of musician and singer.
The whole point of me doing a Christmas record and what I centered it around was the song 'Christmas with You' from the point-of-view of the soldiers in Iraq.
