There's just no telling what I'll do. But I can say for certain I will continue to play, record, and put out music.
At the end of the day I want to be the guy who experienced music in all type of ways, with hip-hop being the roots of it.
It's always very special for me to work Chicago. Both of the record companies I was with, early on, were based in Chicago. The music was always huge there.
Unfortunately or fortunately, in order to become acquainted with the idiom of country or rock music, it is necessary to occasionally play in a bar. Bars are a rehearsal place.
I would never have become music director of the Chicago Symphony, which would have been an extremely sad loss.
I honestly don't listen to a lot of music - I spend so much time working at my own music.
For a long time I was interested in being a social worker. In a lot of ways I feel that that's all my music is, trying to help people.
My general take on American music since 1969 is that it's just getting stiffer and people are getting more uptight - audience, performance, and palace guard.
I had an opportunity to play baseball in college, but I just didn't want to go to school. I started focusing on my music and it was game over!
I was lucky enough to have parents who started me on music very early, but most kids don't get that kind of exposure.
There was always a lot of American music in England until, obviously when the Beatles came around, then there was a shift towards English music, but before then American music was the main thing.
Apparently, there's this whole set of disgruntled people but obviously it's not my intention to offend anyone by changing the style of music that I've done.
I don't know about folk music. I play guitar, so there's a feeling I make folk music.
With music, it feels natural that, in my head, I can pull things apart and then put them back together very quickly.
Americana Music is about all sorts of different music. It's very free and open: a world where people just like authentic music.
To say that an artist sells out means that an artist is making a conscious choice to compromise his music, to to weaken his music for the sake of commercial gain.
I've admired Alicia Keys since before I got into the music industry, just everything she represents as a female artist.
When you're in Jamaica, unless you're in a tourist spot, you don't hear Bob Marley; you mostly hear dance hall music.
Music was a central part of my childhood because my mother played organ and piano in the church, and that meant all us kids had to be in the church choir.
My house was filled with music. We had a piano, and my brothers and sisters played instruments. Even though I was around it, I played basketball.
We're five people, five individuals who came together to create something, to make music and to complete each other musically, to form a perfect circle.
