Music Producers From The United States

"It’s very uncomfortable to hear them used when I don’t agree with what’s being said. But I recognize that those songs have entered into a bigger life, a life all their own. They belong to the audience. How they’re used isn’t always something I can control."

"If we're born in God's image, then God knows how we can fuck up. And he knows that you really didn't mean it."

"I feel sorry for kids these days. They get so much homework. Remember the days when we put a belt around our two books and carried them home? Now they're dragging a suitcase. They have school all day, then homework from six until eleven. There's no time left to be creative. The hardest part for me is when my thirteen-year-old is complaining about the workload. I agree with him. I'm supposed to be responsible and support the teacher. But it's like, "You're right, son. This is bullshit.""

"Artists aren't necessarily business people. And they aren't necessarily aware of all the things that go on in their names. Some just want to make some music, but there is a lot of greed among artists as well. Whether or not we know it, we are all to blame. I think it's time — starting with the artist — to try to be a little more responsible and aware of what goes on in our name."

"I think television's become a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever. If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television. It's damn dangerous. TV does not care about you or what happens to you. It's downright bad for your health now, and that's not a far-out concept. I think watching the TV news is bad for you. It is bad for your physical health and your mental health. The music business looks like, you know, innocent schoolboys compared to the TV business. They care about nothing but profit."

"I don't believe in censorship, but I do believe that an artist has to take some moral responsibility for what he or she is putting out there. And I think a lot of these young kids are going to have to learn the hard way before they realize that you can actually do some damage if you're being careless or frivolous in what you're saying."

"I'm frustrated by what I hear. Maybe it's not meant for me. Personally, I'm way too bright for a lot of the hip-hop lyrics to affect. I'm much too smart to think that jewelry or how cool I am is really going to change much about my personality. If you're dumb enough that it entertains you, have a great time. But I am seeking more than that."

"An act like ours wouldn't even be around today if someone hadn't brought us along and let us make mistakes and grow at our own pace. Today it seems that if you don't have a hit — or even if you do — they have no use for you the next time."

"It's funny how the music industry is enraged about the Internet and the way things are copied without being paid for. But you know why people steal the music? Because they can't afford the music. I'm not condoning downloading music for free. I don't think that's really fair, but I understand it. If you brought CD prices back down to $8.98, you would solve a lot of the industry's problems."

"I don't think it's a good attitude in your life to feel that you have to be rich to have self-esteem. You know, I saw a billboard in New York I wish I had photographed. It was for the TNN network. It said three words against a patriotic background of red, white and blue — BIGGER, YOUNGER, RICHER. Now, I find that fascinating: 'Bigger, younger, richer.' This whole idea of being wealthy has gone too far. I never ride in a limousine, you know. I feel gross if I get in a limousine. One good thing about the sixties was it sort of was the opposite back then. You looked silly trying to appear rich."

"You don't hear any more of, 'Hey, we did something creative and we turned a profit, how about that?' Everywhere we look, we want to make the most money possible. This is a dangerous, corrupt notion. That's where you see the advent of programming on the radio, and radio research, all these silly things. That has made pop music what it is today. Everything — morals, truth — is all going out the window in favor of profit."

"I don't understand the ones that have no sense of hope and invest in hate. That's not gonna work out, you know? It's a waste of your time!"

"I think for it to be unhip to be idealistic is weird, you know? I mean, even all the best rebels to me had some sense of hope in them."

"Young people are very cynical now, you know? Very cynical! They've been taught cynicism, they've been — they've been bred cynicism. So, I think it's important to give them hope and realism in the same package, you know? You can be realistic but there should be — there should be hope in it. Because hope's what we're about. If we don't have hope then we don't go on."

"Gravity is working against me, And gravity wants to bring me down.Oh, twice as much ain't twice as good And can't sustain like one half could. It's wanting more that's gonna send me to my knees."

"No musician is indifferent to the public's perception of him, but the exuberant, logorrheic Mayer takes self-awareness to new postmodern heights. Like a football player providing color commentary on his own career, he muses constantly on his own abilities and his place in the taxonomy of pop."

"Before that it was Halo, and no one could beat him. That's pretty much his MO if he finds an interest in something -- it doesn't matter how incidental it is."

"What song do I hate? I think "Daughters," by John Mayer, would be a good candidate. I don't know why he bugs me so bad."

"I was astonished at how well he played live. I had no idea he was that good."

"You know, the dude is a real musician. It's like anything you ever loved in Joe Jackson or anything you ever loved in any '70s rock. You're gonna get it out of this dude. He's a real student, and it comes through in his music."

"One time I saw him perform live and he switched up his song at the end, like, [improvised] different chords — he remixed it...He's just not your typical guitar player. He's trying to push the envelope for the way guitarists and vocalists are heard. ... I just respect his musicality."

"Me and John, we just cool, period. ... We get in the studio and we vibe and then we make music from that point."

"He words stuff with a real, I guess it's a witty, intelligent, very human [sensibility]. I would like to grab some of those qualities...I wish he was my friend."

"John Mayer is a very talented brother and you don't know where your blessings are going to come from."

"Neither punk nor prom king, Mayer was a tall kid from Connecticut, driving on the freeways, chasing slippery techno women, inhabiting a world of parents and slipcovers and holidays and gracious Southeastern metropolises; he was smart, inquisitive, articulate, a touch off in places."

"John wanted to take it in more of a pop direction than I did. It was like a marriage that we both knew would go bad once we started touring."

"He was over at my house every day between fifth grade and eighth grade."

"You be the DJ, I'll be the driver, You put your feet up in the getaway car. I'm flying fast like a, a wanted man. I want you, baby, like you can't understand.Oh, love on the weekend, Love on the weekend. We found a message in a bottle we were drinking."

"Oh, you can't make yourself stop dreaming Who you're dreaming of. If it's who you love, Then it's who you love."

"Did you know that you could be wrong And swear you’re right? Some people been known to do it All their lives. But you find yourself alone Just like you found yourself before. Like I found myself in pieces On the hotel floor. Hard times help me see.I’m a good man with a good heart; Had a tough time, got a rough start. But I finally learned to let it go, Now I’m right here, and I’m right now. And I’m hoping, knowing somehow That my shadow days are over. My shadow days are over now."

"Goodbye cold, goodbye rain, Goodbye sorrow, and goodbye shame.I'm headed out west with my headphones on, Boarded a flight with a song in the back of my soul And no one knows I just found out her ghost left town The queen of California is stepping down, down."

"Who says I can’t be free? From all of the things that I used to be. Re-write my history. Who says I can’t be free?"

"I was born in the arms of imaginary friends, Free to roam, made a home out of everywhere I've been. Then you come crashing in, like the realest thing, Trying my best to understand all that your love can bring.Oh half of my heart's got a grip on the situation; Half of my heart takes time. Half of my heart's got a right mind to tell you That I can't keep loving you (can't keep loving you) Oh, with half of my heart."

"Lightning strikes Inside my chest to keep me up at night. Dream of ways To make you understand my pain."

"Have no fear for giving in, Have no fear for giving over. You'd better know that in the end It's better to say too much Than never say what you need to say again.Even if your hands are shaking And your faith is broken, Even as the eyes are closing, Do it with a heart wide open."

"When you’re dreaming with a broken heart, The waking up is the hardest part."

"Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword. Like punching underwater, You never can hit who you're trying for. Some need the exhibition And some have to know they tried, It's the chemical weapon for the war that's ragin' on inside."

"Now if we had the power To bring our neighbors home from war, They would have never missed a Christmas, No more ribbons on their door. And when you trust your television, What you get is what you got. Because when they own the information, oh They can bend it all they want."

"Me and all my friends We're all misunderstood. They say we stand for nothing and There's no way we ever could. Now we see everything that's going wrong With the world and those who lead it. We just feel like we don't have the means To rise above and beat it.So we keep waiting, Waiting on the world to change. We keep on waiting, Waiting on the world to change. It's hard to beat the system When we're standing at a distance. So we keep waiting, Waiting on the world to change."

"I know a girl; She puts the color inside of my world. But she's just like a maze Where all of the walls all continually change. And I've done all I can To stand on her steps with my heart in my hands. Now I'm starting to see Maybe it's got nothing to do with me.Fathers, be good to your daughters, Daughters will love like you do. Girls become lovers who turn into mothers, So mothers, be good to your daughters too."

"Yes, I'm grounded, got my wings clipped, I'm surrounded by all this pavement. Guess I'll circle while I'm waiting For my fuse to dry.Someday I'll fly, someday I'll soar, Someday I'll be so damn much more. Cause I'm bigger than my body gives me credit for."

"Something about the way your hair falls in your face I love the shape you take when crawling towards the pillowcase You tell me where to go and Though I might leave to find it, I'll never let your head hit the bed Without my hand behind it.And if you want love, We'll make it. Swim in a deep sea Of blankets. Take all your big plans And break them, This is bound to be a while."

"I am driving up '85 in the Kind of morning that lasts all afternoon, Just stuck inside the gloom. 4 more exits to my apartment but I am tempted to keep the car in drive And leave it all behind.Because I wonder sometimes About the outcome Of a still verdictless life."

"I want to run through the halls of my high school, I want to scream at the Top of my lungs. I just found out there's no such thing as the real world, Just a lie you've got to rise above."

""Welcome to the real world", she said to me Condescendingly. Take a seat, Take your life Plot it out in black and white. Well I never lived the dreams of the prom kings And the drama queens. I'd like to think the best of me Is still hiding Up my sleeve.They love to tell you: Stay inside the lines, But something's better On the other side."

"Absolutely, because during sex, I’m just going to run a filmstrip. I’m still masturbating."

"Sexually it was crazy. That’s all I’ll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm."

"I don’t think I open myself to it. My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick."

"Someone asked me the other day, “What does it feel like now to have a hood pass?” And by the way, it’s sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a nigger pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass? But I said, “I can’t really have a hood pass. I’ve never walked into a restaurant, asked for a table and been told, ‘We’re full.’”"

"I was smart enough to know it would probably make me a salable item for the paparazzi. I knew I’d have to move to a home that had a gate. But that pearl of possibility that lives in your heart when you meet somebody you want to know more about has such a different molecular density than everything else that you have to pursue it."