I was brought up to be a gentleman. That means you know how to walk, talk and dress the part.
Back in college, when I got kicked out of school, I was still in school, I'd just written the song that got me my record deal. If I hadn't gotten kicked out of school I wouldn't be where I am now. Three months after that, I got my record deal and the rest is history.
I went back and listened to the first three albums I made and tried to figure out what was special about them, why people keep going back to them. I think it was because I didn't know what I was doing. I had no idea if they were going to play it on the radio or anything. All I did was write songs, so that's what I got back to.
Every song that I've done is me in one way or another.
The guy comes up to the plate, there's always a chance where he can get a grand slam and everybody forgets about all the times he missed.
You'd hear Willie Nelson, then Earth, Wind & Fire, then Chicago, then Billy Joel on the same radio station. Nowadays, everything is compartmentalized.
I started as a writer and when I sent my demos out everyone wanted to know who was singing and if that person wanted a record deal.
Stevie didn't use the technology to drive the song. He used it to enhance. I use the tools to further my work, I don't use my work to further the tools.
I'm not thinking about what needs to be on the radio. I'm not thinking about anything other than - I'm just going to let this music come out of me and not have any sort of preconceived notion of what I should do. I'm just going to do it.
I am at my core a singer/songwriter a la James Taylor or a la Billy Joel. It's not that I don't want to work with people, but I do just love doing my own thing.
I was a nerd academically. But I was also an athlete and a musician. I never wanted to be shut out of any situation. I think it was that more than anything.
I'm constantly being courted by labels and their backing. Obviously the market is there when you talk about the economics and the numbers, but it's hard to give up the freedom of being able to do whatever you want.
I was probably six years old when I first sang before an audience.
I used to play pianos in bars. You know in hotels, you'd see guys playing piano with a snifter? That was me, with a painted-on mustache. I was about 15.
He knows I rip him off every day. He's the godfather for me. Nobody can say they aren't influenced by what Stevie Wonder has done.
It is great to have your own label; you can cultivate your own artists I've worked with pretty much everyone I wanted to.
I'm never satisfied with what I do.
I think I've tried to stay true to my music since the beginning. It's kind of hard because of the access and technology but I just do what I do.
I hate the pigeonholing that's happened in the music business in the last 30 years.
For me able to do the records I want to do and not have to worry about this producer or that producer or that trend, I'm not really interested in that.
I've always been serious about music. After you've done it for so many years, you get back to the basics.
The hardest thing to do in this business is to still be around. When music changes, when labels' resources have dried up, it becomes harder and harder to continue to make a living at this.
You know, most of my career I wrote about moments in time. All of us have felt one thing or another and it didn't last very long. Now I'm drawing from real experience. It's a huge difference.
It feels really great to be popular.
Being a musician, you want to be able to do the hardest stuff there is. People would think it's classical, but in classical, it's all on the page and the difficulty is keeping up with the music.
