In times of war, starvation, hunger and injustice, such tragedy can only be put aside if you allow yourself to be uplifted through music, film and dance.
Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can't help but move to it. That's what happens to me. I can't help it.'
I've made my own music, and the way I've always described it is Peggy Lee with an electric guitar, or Billie Holiday with some PJ Harvey in there.
The Phantom, as well as being backed up by that music, it just so was a role that I identified with so powerfully. From the first second that I walked on to perform.
I feel that I belong to the 19th century. Some composers' music is very topical. It almost says, 'This is about what I read in newspapers yesterday.' Not mine.
Music has its own depths, and I let it take me where it takes me, even if it means stripping all my clothes off.
Now the music industry is sort of like a Craigslist venture, right? Where you're making your own records and selling them online.
Rap is always evolving. It's easy for the old school to hate the new school, but it's a music that got a little stifled I think, by the Internet a little bit.
For a long time I have compared cinema to music, I think cinema has a lot to do with the rhythm of music.
I do play the guitar, but I do it for fun. And I am terrible at writing music as well. I have tried and failed, horribly.
But I've been freestyling and messing around with rhyming since I was 13. That's when I really started listening to hip-hop music.
When you hear my music and you feel the emotion, it's real. When you see me in a film and you see a tear, it's real.
Here's how I understand music. If you can play the same bunch of noise twice, it's music. To go beyond that is supercilious and pontificating.
I like pop music. I also like the sound of a dying refrigerator. I can listen to that for an hour and a half if I'm in the mood.
What I loved about country music when I was a kid was the Grand Ole Opry, was 'Hee Haw,' was 360 degrees of entertainment.
You know, I had the music baskets and the writing basket. And I had the acting. And those eggs just hatched first, and the others were slow to incubate.
In my day-to-day, I do a bit of yoga, I go biking, I read, I watch shows, I go to music concerts.
I had this exceptional classical music voice. If I'd followed a true path for my talent, I would have ended up being an opera singer.
I have quite an eclectic taste in music. I like Angus & Julia Stone; they are an Australian brother/sister duo. I like Adele. She is phenomenal.
Julie Andrews is so iconic, and I grew up watching 'The Sound of Music' - it's every girl's dream to play Maria, in a way, I think. That music!
You don't see a lot of black rock stars. The music industry tends to be segregated stylistically. It's hard for a black artist to cross over to rock music.
