I LIKE THE WAY YOU THINK: QUOTES FROM THE MINDS OF MUSIC

Sometimes you just need to hear some truth. Here is some truth from the minds behind the music.

“Every day, somebody has a song they want you to hear, and you’re stupid if you don’t listen to it because you never know what you may find.”

- Blake Shelton

“You have to go to work every day. You just have to go to work. I went to the office every morning, I went to the office every afternoon. If I had something good, it wasn’t going to be good enough ‘til I went over it with a fine-tooth comb several times. You just work hard. The ones [songwriters] who are making it today are just working really, really hard.”

- Gary Burr (Songwriter)

"You look out there and there's people that, their day is changed because of your contribution to it."

- Brad Paisley

"When on stage, I always try to take my audience through as many emotions as I possibly can. I want them to go from laughter to tears, be shocked and surprised, and walk out the door with a renewed sense of themselves—and maybe a smile.”

- Reba McEntire

"At some labels you make great music and it’s like a tree falling in the woods. 

Does anyone hear it?"

- Jack Ingram

“I’ve come to appreciate how special a song is compared to other art forms because you can carry it around in your head and your heart, and it remains part of you. It just comes as natural as a bird to me, always did. It’s the way singer-songwriters make sense of our lives.”

- Kris Kristofferson

“If you’re a painter, you don’t go, ‘Abstract’s really selling, so that’s what I’m going to do.’ If you’re really truly an artist, you have to think what you’re meant to paint.”

- Trisha Yearwood

"I simply aspire to reach the hearts and minds of my listeners with music, performances, and compositions that are authentic, meaningful, and lasting. If someone is generous enough to listen, I want them to find something of value in what I have to offer."

- Skip Ewing

"Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character."

- Vince Gill

"Wherever we are, God's in that moment, God's speaking to us, and if we've just got our ears open and our antennas up, there's no lack of inspiration. He's not silent. We just have to be listening."

- Steven Curtis Chapman

“You have to go through some fires before you can talk about the heat.”

- Jason Crabb

"You definitely get the answer 'no' more times in this business than you do 'yes.' It's what you do with those 'nos' that makes your success either great or not."

- Thomas Rhett

"What I've learned by going out and playing smaller venues and being more in touch with people is getting feedback, just by virtue of being able to watch the crowd react and watch their faces instead of being blinded by 3,000 spotlights. I've realized that you can quickly get out of touch with your audience if you're not careful."

- Ronnie Dunn

" Go live your life."

- Wade Hayes

"I love writing songs. I love doing my radio show and talking to the fans and listening to what they have to say, but there's a certain responsibility that comes along with being given the gift of music. I take that seriously, but at the same time I try to use it to do something that makes a difference in a positive way."

- Randy Owen (Alabama)

"Writing is not work. In fact, there's nothing better. Writing is something that if the music business went completely away tomorrow - radio stations quit existing and music quit being popular and it was old hat - I would still write songs."

- Toby Keith

“I was waiting and waiting until the song knocked on my door, but I had to put some sort of effort into it, finally.  You’ve got to get in there at some point and pull the tooth out.” 

-  John Prine

"I've always believed that you put everything into making the best record you can make, regardless of how you release it and regardless of the press and the hype - that the music wins."

- Eric Church

"If I can make a connection, one connection, to any one listener in the world, I consider that successful."

- Wynonna Judd

"You've got to keep the stage world and your real world separated or you're headed for trouble."

- George Strait

"Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there's shadow - no, not just shadow, but fullness. You've got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that's real."

- Amy Grant

"I think that people respond to honesty in music so I only choose songs 

that are the truth for me."

- Alison Krauss

"It's not a problem if 20,000 people heard my music for free, but it's a huge problem if 20,000 people never heard my music."

- Ashley McBride

"It's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice"

- Chris Janson

"I absolutely believe that what you sing and how you act when you're in this position should be the definition of who you are and where your heart and character stand."

- Cody Johnson