Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I didn't think I had a voice at all, and I still think of myself as an interpreter of songs more than a singer. I thought it was too deep; people thought I was a man. I had a very strong Jamaican accent, too; the accent really messed me up for auditions.
I'm always writing music. I sort of do it obsessively, for good or for bad. It's good that it keeps me going, but it's bad because it really is sort of like an obsession where you can't stop sometimes and it'll keep you up at night and ruin your weekend.
I'm not trying to be romantic. I think you can tell when people are trying to be sexy onstage. When I was doing 'All the Way,' I was really thinking about my wife. People don't know my personal experience, but they can tell it's an honest interpretation.
I grew up listening to Patsy Klein, Reba Mcentire and would study their voices. But once I became bored with that, I moved on to more contemporary stuff like Sheryl Crow and I combined everything that I had learned from country and rock and made this CD.
Some of the stuff, I absolutely don't remember recording it, it's been so long. But I do like to try to throw in something a little different for the audience once in a while. Because a lot of these people who come to see have come back many, many times.
I love the Country Music Hall of Fame. I don't think it's just a hall of fame and it's not just a museum. It's a schoolhouse. It's a place where people from all across the world can come and learn about this great genre that we're making a living out of.
When I wake up in the morning, and I go to the piano, and there's a blank sheet of paper in front of me, by the end of the day, that could be a gold mine. You really do need to wake up and expect that the world is your oyster because it very well may be.
Because of the shape of my eyes, I can wear a lot of make-up. I can do a smoky look in the evening, but in the day I wear a lot less. Most women don't deal with lip pencils - they have been given a bad name, but are essential, especially as we get older.
Everybody's a multifaceted, emotional, living being, I think. Sometimes it's fun to goof around, sometimes you've got to think about things, sometimes you've got to be strange, and then you've got to be jiggly. That's just what being a human's all about.
When you are a child of the mountains yourself, you really belong to them. You need them. They become the faithful guardians of your life. If you cannot dwell on their lofty heights all your life, if you are in trouble, you want at least to look at them.
You just need to be honest with how you're feeling. But, a lot of women are afraid of it because they think, 'Oh, they are going to take my baby away. They're gonna call me incompetent. I'm going to lose my job. I've got to be tough, it's a man's world.'
I've had a couple of times where things were so extraordinary wonderful that it changed my world. One of them was when I met Ira Gershwin and started working with him. That was a game-changer for me. It changed the entire course and direction of my life.
These are some of my awards - an Ivor Novello, a Variety Club Silver Heart, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. I also have a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame and a street named after me in Brooklyn where I used to live.
We will never know everything. But I think if we can learn within the next few decades to face the danger we all are in, I believe there will be tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions, of human beings working wherever they are to do something good.
However, the agricultural revolution took thousands of years, the Industrial Revolution took hundreds, and the information revolution only took decades. So, who knows what's going to happen in the next few decades, especially with the women's revolution.
I truly don't know why the boys are getting all the votes - it could be because they are really amazing, and that's all there is to it. They're really, really good and every single boy deserves to be in the competition right now, and so do the two girls.
I was frustrated in the past, like, 'Wow, why do they have to throw me in the R&B urban adult contemporary lane?' 'Woman' was a no. 1 hit at Urban AC, so there's no disrespect to that lane. But did it get a fair shot at urban radio? No, I don't think so.
I actually had a bunch of songs that I worked on with Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed, but they were too heavy for me because my voice sounds good when I sing clean. It sounds good dirty too, but when I hear my voice sing really clean, that's a special sound.
Sometimes people look at our covers and say, "That looks just like that other cover." I say, "And?" It reminds them of a cover from way back when. If you know the cover, then pull it out and compare it. I don't care. It's supposed to bring back memories.
When Chrissie Hynde was inducted into the Hall of Fame, I, of course, was there to see that because I have to back up the girl. When it was over, I said we needed to have a party for Chrissie in my hotel suite. I didn't really know her, but it was great.
I don't want to make that sound like I'm preaching from a mountain top when I say you have to give your family everything, because I know it's hard for people. I'm lucky to be in a position where you can establish those ground rules and make it that way.
It's good to have an idea about what you want to do with your life before just doing things. If you have goals and dreams, it doesn't really matter if you achieve them, but if you have them it's much easier to not get lost. It's easier to make decisions.
We're always supposed to be happy and positive. There's something about letting yourself slip into that vulnerable space because you can really feel things there. It helps you grow as a person. I tend to enjoy being in a vulnerable space, in a weird way.
The important thing is to build up my cardiovascular system, so I have the stamina to do stunts. To me, stepping over the line, taking a chance and succeeding is the ultimate freedom, be it in rock and roll or when executing a really challenging routine.
There are a lot of middle of the road artists of the '70s, who aren't being played anyplace. I think it's unfortunate in a way, because it stifles you sort of, you don't get to as many people but I've had a long and wonderful career, I have no complaints.
You need to release yourself of any expectation of what that material should be. Just start letting it be what it's naturally evolving into, even if it means just pulling words out of the dictionary and laying them one after another. Words are everywhere.
All of my babies know that I preach all day... I ain't trying to hide no light under no bushel. Everybody needs a little light in their life, and when they need prayer, they know where to come because they know I love them all, and I ain't judging nobody.
Ironically, being a coach on 'The Voice' and spending time with those kids, Xenia and Dia especially, I learned a lot about myself. It reminded me how lucky I am that this happened for me, and it kind of lit the spark inside me again for my love of music.
I believe you must find the things in life that you love, and don't let anybody or anything stop you. There may be lesser successes, but you're never a failure unless you choose not to do something. I don't fail unless I quit. You must believe to receive.
Tonight, I would like to pay tribute to the greatest entertainer of all time, Mr. Elvis Presley. Elvis was Las Vegas. And if it wasn't for him, so many performers like myself would not have the chance to do what we do in this town. He really was the king.
I look back at the looks I've had over the years. I'm proud of myself that I had the courage to experiment with crazy hairstyles and some fashion things. Would I do it again? No. But that's part of the learning process and getting from point A to point B.
Around 1974, I graduated into the occult, and spent a sold six or seven years immersed in the Kabala and the Chaldean, Celtic, and Druidic traditions I also became fascinated with Aleister Crowley, the nineteenth-century magician who shared these beliefs.
Everyone talks about new love all the time, but there's so much to draw from when you've been in a longer relationship. It makes me stick my chest out a little bit. It's like, 'I know what you've been through, but you don't know what it's like over here.'
I don't think that there's much that sets me apart from other musicians, but I think there are definitely things that set me apart from other kinds of artists. I feel that musicians do it their own way, write their own songs and put on a great live shows.
As a new artist, you come out, and there are so many other new artists. It seems like there's a whole wave of new artists that come along every year. In '05, I was part of the crop. It was a lot harder trying to set myself apart from the rest of the pack.
Even though there's no forum for me on the radio for the kind of music I sing anymore, I am still excited about having a career where I can sing the best music in the world, and people will come and hear me because of the hit records I've had in the past.
Recovering from the suicide of a loved one, you need all the help you can get, so I very much recommend a meditation program. The whole picture of how to recover from this has to do with body, mind, and spirit. That's applicable to any kind of depression.
I did once shatter a chandelier. I was singing with my college choir in Wales. I was the soloist and I hit the high note and there was this massive bang and all this glass came down from the ceiling. I'd like that to be my party trick if I can perfect it.
I thought I wanted to go to drama school or university, and that would have been a completely different life. But what got me was the sound, and hearing it. Hearing everything so loud, I loved that back in the studio. I loved that from the very beginning.
What basically happens is your hormones get out of whack. Because of the stress in your life your body says, 'I need more hormones.' So, your hormones are trying to produce and produce and produce, and it's even more stressful and it is this wicked cycle.
I am happy. I have a wonderful marriage. I was in a not-great second marriage for 20 years, then I fell in love with Steve, my first husband, again, and we remarried. I wore the dress from our first wedding in 1982 - it was tight, but I could get into it.
Standing above the crowd, He had a voice so strong and loud And I swallowed his façade 'cause I'm so Eager to identify with Someone above the ground, Someone who seemed to feel the same, Someone prepared to lead the way, with Someone who would die for me.
My dad was always there, even though he wasn't living in our house. He was always on the phone, always just a car ride away. Whenever he had a new recording, we would be the first to get the acetate. And it would say, in Dad's handwriting, 'Play it loud.'
Truth be told, in determining what you want and who you want to be with, you will be compromising in certain areas. It can be in the area of appearance or occupation or maybe even certain personality characteristics, but no one person can have everything.
I'd been listening to some old '70s disco, soul stuff, and I thought, 'Let's go into the studio and do something different. Let's do something that's super unashamedly pop and fun and danceable.' 'Trouble' is what we did. It's something that wrote itself.
I wear my heart on my sleeve, and whatever I was giving, it was just coming from my natural place at that time. And you know, some albums I've made, I look back and think they were great, and then some I look at, and I think that wasn't right at the time.
I definitely consider 'Poses' - the whole album in fact - to be kind of a miracle. Like the last breath of that moment when decadence is healthy, 'Poses' encapsulates that feeling. It's a kind of song and a kind of album that I'll never be able to repeat.
I was a question on a game show. I think it was Jeopardy. The question was, "Who is the only person in the world, only female in the world unrelated to Michael Jackson, to ever do a duet with him?" He was doing a duet with me and that's all I cared about.
Anytime you get out of your comfort zone and you have to do something that you're not comfortable doing and that you're not real sure of yourself in, there's an exhilaration that comes along with that. I get off on it, so that's why I enjoy making movies.
'All In' is like the Giants motto, so I kind of took that, and I kind of used New York as the backdrop - how diehard New Yorkers are for their team. Me being a New Yorker, I just had to show my love for the city as well as my love for the New York Giants.