Dropkick Murphys get me going, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana… plus, all the regular hip-hop stuff.

Ninety percent of all music is always crap, and when too many people decide they’re going to have guitar bands, then ninety percent of them are going to be crap. It’s just a given law.

I don’t want to do free jazz! Because free jazz – which is the musical equivalent of free marketeering – isn’t actually free at all. It’s just constrained by what your muscles can do.

I cannot with any real integrity perform songs I’ve done for 25 years. I don’t need the money. What I need is to feel that I am not letting myself down as an artist and that I still have something to contribute.

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.

I went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players.

If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.

I’ve noticed a lot of younger artists have less fear of doing different sorts of things, whether it’s various types of music, or gallery artists moving between video and sculpture and drawing.

‚In Utero‘ was the first time I’d made an album that reached into the dark side. I remember the conflict and the uncertainty. I remember all those things when I hear ‚Pennyroyal Tea.‘

I’ve gotten used to being Frank Ocean.

We uploaded ‚Ocean Eyes‘ to SoundCloud, and it started getting a lot of plays pretty much immediately.

When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.

There’s poetry in being the band that can sell out Wembley but also makes a record in a garage. I don’t like doing what people expect me to do.

Writing music is just like writing a book.

I used to sing songs and write with my uncle, Bill Owens.

I’m just changing the game because I know what the fans want and the people want ‚cause I’m a fan of hip-hop.

A chorus is not easy.

My songs always sound a lot better in person than they do on the record.

When I was a teenager, my biggest lessons came from Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley. I learned so much from opening up for those artists, and it also taught me how to treat your opening acts and make them feel like they’re part of a family, not just a tour.

I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window.

I’ve had mixtapes that have been better than albums I’ve heard from other artists. I take my time; I put my heart into it.

Every band I’ve worked with also wants to be countercultural in the sense that they want to feel that they’ve gone somewhere that nobody else has been.

When I’m writing, I’m thinking about how the songs are going to play live. Fifty bars of rap don’t translate onstage. No matter how potent the music, you lose the crowd. They want a hook; they want to sing your stuff back to you.

I was a strange, loud little kid who could sit at the piano and kill a Beethoven piece.

Factoring in millions of people when I’m writing a song is not a good idea. I don’t ever do it.

People assume that the meaning of a song is vested in the lyrics. To me, that has never been the case. There are very few songs that I can think of where I remember the words.

When we started to do punk, we put all of these things together to create the look of an urban guerrilla – a rebel.

The effect of music on fashion has been immense, especially hip-hop and urban music.

Five or six songs leaked from the original version of ‚Encore.‘ So I had to go in and make new songs to replace them.

You can’t really imagine music without technology.

Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, Big L, Tupac. That was, like, my top five, generally.

In 7th grade, I believe, I wrote my first rap song. It was about everything I was seeing, everything that was going on around me.

I collect records. And cats. I don’t have any cats right now. But if I’m taking a walk and I see a cat, I’m happy.

I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.

I tell my fellow reggaetoneros, keep giving it your all and bring more creativity.

If there’s not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.

I’ve always felt music is the only way to give an instantaneous moment the feel of slow motion. To romanticise it and glorify it and give it a soundtrack and a rhythm.

Look, when I started out, mainstream culture was Sinatra, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Sound of Music. There was no fitting into it then and of course, there’s no fitting into it now.

Phish and Dave Matthews really know their audiences and really treat them well.

Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to California, I started listening to Spanish music, mostly Mexican music. But were I in Egypt, I would listen to the music of the people, or if I was in Italy, I’d listen to Italian music.

I would love to get Rihanna on a Khaled song. That’s my friend, but every time I’m around her, I get shy.

I listen to music all day every day. I can’t not listen to music. It’s kind of scary how much I listen to music, but it’s what I love, and it’s all I care about, so I’m good with it.

You know, Nirvana used to start rehearsals with the three of us just jamming. For, like, a half an hour, just noise and freeform crap – and usually it was crap. But sometimes things would come from it, and some songs on Nevermind came from that, and ‚Heart Shaped Box‘ and stuff on ‚In Utero‘ just happened that way.

I love being a part of the country-music community.

I would say that I’m more moved by melody, even though I love to rap.

Anybody that doesn’t like Cardi B a hater!

I grew up on the Beatles; I love Linkin Park and Green Day. I heard hip-hop for the first time at 11 and realized what I was missing.

I’ve always tended to write songs prolifically.

I just want to keep writing music.

You can’t imagine parlor ballads drifting out of high-rise multi-towered buildings. That kind of music existed in a more timeless state of life.

You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.

I like being able to be on the inside of music, rather than on the outside listening to it.

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 know why Foo Fighters have been a band for 20 years? Because I’ve never really told anybody what I think of them. The last thing you ever want to do is go to therapy with your band.

I just wanted to be a songwriter. I did really not like the sound of my own voice.

I wanted to get rid of the element that had been considered essential in pop music: the voice.

The age of a woman doesn’t mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.

That thing about being an icon, the fifth Beatle, I just found it so freaky.

John Lennon was definitely my favorite Beatle, hands down.

I sure lost my musical direction in Hollywood. My songs were the same conveyer belt mass production, just like most of my movies were.

People haven’t always been there for me, but music always has.