People are going to bash you while you're alive, and they're going to bash you when you're gone.
— Anthony Hamilton
You have to keep pushing toward those dreams no matter what setbacks happen.
I think it's a great time to put out quality work, and it will speak for itself. You don't have to work so hard at being successful at it, because it is something that people want, so when they want it and it is good, then they're going to get it and continue to give it to other people.
I encourage women to just feel good about who you are.
Like, even when I speak, I think I speak the same way I write. I kind of see it a certain way, and it leads me to write it exactly how I'm seeing it.
I'm not always a heartbroken guy. I like to laugh, act silly, dance. There are so many more colors to me. I really can be fun.
I wanna change the game in way where I'm not knocking nobody out of the way, not claiming to be the best at this or that, but just doing wonders with the gift I've been given.
I have a passion for not only my own kids but just kids in general.
I do want to sell as many records and win as many awards as I can. The awards though, they don't necessarily determine if you're good or not. I know that now.
I enjoy touring. I enjoy recording the music, I enjoy dreaming it and I enjoy performing it. I also definitely enjoy selling it, because I like to eat.
I'm a church boy. I got whuppin's. So I'm afraid at any moment my grandmother could just swing down from heaven with a switch.
I love being in the studio, and I am a huge fan of live music. Without writing good stuff in the studio, you have nothing to play live.
You have to be who you are when you do music.
I learned patience, perseverance, and dedication. Now I really know myself, and I know my voice. It's a voice of pain and victory.
When people are running up to me in the grocery store screaming, 'Oh my God! Oh my God!' that's when I know I'm swervin'. As long as people are recognizing you and you matter to them, then you're doing something right.
After a while, you want to sell a lot of records, win awards and touch as many people as you can, but you have to secure the foundation with your family. I'm a family man, but I'm a businessman, too.
'Back To Love' is a way of letting people know that sometimes you get caught up in trying to be successful in school or in your social life, and it's a reminder not to forget that each day people are getting older. Nobody is promised tomorrow, so we should make sure that we spend quality time with quality people.
It was very important for me to touch on things that haven't changed, like schools. I'm in Cleveland, Ohio. My lady's from Ohio, and the schools are being torn down, and they turned them into high-rise condos.
Most songs I write are spur-of-the-moment-type things. I have to be spontaneous. If not, songwriting can bore me. There is no pre-design or idea of what I am going to do when I go into the studio. It's all like that for me. I could go in and write two or three songs in an eight-hour session. You can't over-think songs. You just can't.
Creatively, I'd like to achieve not only being an artist, but being a businessman and having my own music home.
Being a barber is about taking care of the people.
