I think people relate to Skynyrd; it's a working class band. They're just songs with messages. To this day, there's never been a song written that didn't have a message.
Almost every band has somebody who's the main songwriter and who has a vision, a very clear idea of how a song should be.
What a song is is a subjective thing. There's no one real definition for it.
For me it always comes down to what is a good song and I'm very old fashioned in the way that I like to make songs that have something classic about them whether you can play them with an orchestra or an electro synthesizer or an acoustic guitar.
I learnt from Armstrong on the early recordings that you never sang a song the same way twice.
I think of a song in terms of lyrics and stories, and that's what keeps it country for me.
In the modern operas that 'Miss Saigon' and 'Les Miz' are, nobody breaks out into song from conventional book dialogue. Everything is sung from beginning to end, including the recitative.
I have found life an enjoyable, enchanting, active, and sometime terrifying experience, and I've enjoyed it completely. A lament in one ear, maybe, but always a song in the other.
People try to keep their past, like kind of holding on to their past. Every Springsteen song talks about that.
I love music in general. It's like girls and their clothes and shoes; when you love shoes, you love shoes. So, for me, I think it's a really dangerous thing to say I'm going to write the best dance song in the world.
The other day, I woke up, and somebody sent me a screenshot, and it was Sylvester Stallone, Rambo himself. Tweeting my song. 'Rambo.' And I went absolutely nuts in my hotel. Like, I was jumping on the bed screaming.
My parents called me the WB frog. Because when I was onstage, I would do this whole song and dance, but if my parents had a family friend over, I would just go hide in the bedroom.
Joni Mitchell's someone who has tried to make sense of her own world, sometimes painfully, through song.
I think it's kind of difficult to write a good Christmas song because you have a narrow framework of references that you have to work within, and at the same time you want to do something that's personally original and hopefully somewhat unique.
A song is only as strong as its foundation, and when it comes so naturally in any setting, those are the songs that will hopefully outlive you, maybe even outlive the next generation of You.
I mean a song that's specifically for the girls. It's saying you know we talk about them night and day, we're constantly pondering on men and what they've done good and what they've done bad and all these things in our lives.
I've never written a political song. Songs can't save the world. I've gone through all that.
There's a lot of reflection that goes on whenever I write a song - it's been a wild whirlwind last couple of years and there's a lot to talk about, and hopefully that's evident in the music.
I'm about to sing the song for the future.
It's hard to say a favorite song of my father's. I listen to all his stuff - a lot of the old stuff before the '70s.
I started crying, because there's nothing like hearing that the artist who originally did the song likes your version.
Each song has its own secret that's different from another song, and each has its own life. Sometimes it has to be teased out, whereas other times it might come fast. There are no laws about songwriting or producing. It depends on what you're doing, not just who you're doing.
I don't really have hobbies. I paint. I write. I direct videos. I take photos. I'm a creative person. A normal day for me is doing all of those things. Sometimes I stay up until 5 A.M. writing a song because I make music. It's the same with writing.
I'd like to do a completely off-the-wall collaboration. I would like one of my songs to be the hook to a rap song. That would be so much fun!
You sometimes get the feeling that people think getting back together after a hiatus to write and record a record is work, you know, arduous and unpleasant. Being able to write and record - that's a privilege. I don't forget the long days I spent working in a restaurant, when I wanted to be done so I could go home and work on a song.
The mall tour was right off of my second record, before it came out. It was very different. I did an acoustic performance every day in a different mall! One interesting thing I remember is playing 'My Happy Ending' a lot, and that song was so new that I remember getting emotional.
I've been doing my big theater projects, which take years, and writing a song here and there.
I recorded the song 'Believers' because I feel the song has a strong and much needed message. We all need encouragement and something to believe in.
'Gifts' was just a short little one-verse song that I used to close shows in the '60s.
I'm a composer, and therefore I know when I've written a good tune. When you've written a good song is when you know that the lyric is completely coalesced with the song.
After struggling for so long in the industry and writing so many failed songs and hearing 'no' for so long - I'm so grateful every time I hear a song that I was a part of on the radio.
I will have a song that I'm in love with for a couple of months and then I'll go to something else. That's just constantly changing. And sometimes I will go back to old one that I haven't heard for a long time.
It's always nice to be able to capture your life's experiences in a song and hold the emotion in that way.
We've never tried to write radio hits. If I hear our song on the radio, it's cool, and I'm proud, but it's never a goal.
In a studio situation, I'm able to dig deep and come up with stuff that all the guys think fits the vibe of the song. And I think that's partly due to the fact that I grew up listening to just about everything under the sun. I'm very open to music, and I like to do things in a traditional and musical way.
In my opinion, I think sarcasm and humor in a song, without turning it into a novelty song, is really charming.
