To lose my mother just as I'm right on the brink of crossing that threshold over into a career, it was pretty compelling. My entire career is my mother's work, for me.
— CeeLo Green
Music is a means of spreading the good word and spreading positivity and productivity. Those things speak to me.
Balance is key. Balance is a virtue. Balance is next to godliness, maybe. We should all aspire to better balance. Too much of what is said in this world is one-sided, and we need more balance - in our speech, in our music, in our art, in everything.
I'm drawn to the unconventional because I've been drawn unconventionally. I believe that I'm supposed to topple over these false images of what's idealistically beautiful. Because, of course, these intangible qualities are very attractive to women. Sincerity. Sense of humor. Success.
I feel like I'm a rock artist. I don't feel like I'm a pop artist. And I'm alt rock. I'm indie rock. I'm punk rock. Because it comes from the pots and pans. It's a lot of me, but I've got multiple personalities.
Predictability is the cousin of death: I don't necessarily want people to see me coming. You know?
I am a rare occasion. I think if everyone had known it was going be me who succeeded, they would have supported me a lot more. They would have known what to do with me a lot earlier. They just didn't know.
I most certainly am not harboring any sort of negative feeling toward the gay community. I don't have an opinion on people with different religious, sexual or political preferences. I'm one of the most liberal artists that I think you will ever meet, and I pride myself on that.
I have one thing that I'm saving for my son. It's a 1965 Chevy Impala Super Sport. It's a beautiful sea-foam green color. It's like a teal green, white interior, and it's just a gorgeous car.
Goodie Mob is my passion, the core of me, the fight, the struggle. I'm still as much of an underdog as I ever was, and my music is still as anti-establishment as it ever was. I want to satisfy that rebel side. It's not null and void. I'm a whole being, and I'm just coming back full circle.
I'm like Shrek. Shrek's a nice guy, but people keep alienating him, like they did with me in my younger life. I'm very loving and kind and generous - I'm a sweetheart!
I have a hell-fire temper.
I do like the ladies an awful lot. Surprisingly enough, it turns out ladies like me back; I'm a really good guy.
Women are our most miraculous muse, an enchanted intangibility that encourages all art.
I think I'm needed - as an artist, as an individual, as an entity, an enigma, an exhibitionist, an entertainer - as an alternative.
I don't eat a lot of junk food anymore, but I sure remember it. I used to go through boxes of Little Debbies. I liked Star Crunch, and of course those oatmeal pies.
I could never be homophobic in any kind of way, dude. I'm such a free bird.
I was one of those kids, inner-city youth and finding my way. I made it. I made a success out of myself, surprisingly.
You can't be all of the people you're influenced by, so you make your own filter and create your own beautiful, unique thing in the world. Soak up the world, man, and make something of your own.
I don't even know if hip-hop is music anymore. It's definitely rhythm. It's definitely tempo. It's definitely beats per minute. But it's product. And television is product placement for the most part. It's not passion.
My varied listening palette is all-inclusive of all walks of life. No one individual is exempt from the human experience, so it is that intangible that is a universal truth. In that regard, I've had success in encapsulating something cosmic.
I would like to be a gang leader on 'Sons of Anarchy' or own a lemonade stand on 'Boardwalk Empire.'
I get a kick out of not being ideal. I think it's awesome. That's entirely the point. And I think my creator is quite a character for letting that be.
Ultimately, I'm a fan of music. I describe writing music sometimes as hieroglyphics, like, you know, excavating, gently brushing off these artifacts and discovering the song underneath it all. It seems as if it is already written in it.
Rock n' roll is not just a fashion statement; it is the attitude, and it has a political posturing as well.
I tend to like antique things. Something can be old, but it can be timeless.
All art stems from a place of alienation. Intimate and alone. Most people are oppressed by the opinion of others, but I was not that way. I was afraid of the repercussions of not doing what I was told to do, what I was called to do by a creator.
Honestly, this face of mine will always be familiar to people. It's that unique quality, man. If it's a dark and crowded room, people are just able to point me out. I think I'll always be famous. I just hope I don't become infamous.
All I'll say is... I'm at a point in life when nothing feels shocking to me. I need something to shock me! I'm almost ready to see a U.F.O.
Music definitely gave me a focus. I was an artist without an outlet. Let's just say if I was not famous, I could have been infamous. I could've had my own episode of 'American Gangster.'
It's hard to write a song about reality because reality doesn't rhyme.
I may sample at Pinkberry, but when I find a flavor I like, I'm pretty committed to it.
I'm all about taking chances. You have to ask yourself, if you're not taking any chances, are you actually even living? Every time you walk out of your door and you're out in the world, you take a chance on not coming back. That is the danger and the dynamic of being alive.
My style is ambiguous and lucid. I wish to be signified but not summed up. I don't want to have to go over the top each time.
I related to 'A Clockwork Orange' in a personal way. I was a bit of a thug growing up. It's taken some reform for me. Thank God for artistry and creativity as an outlet.
For me as an artist, the expansiveness of my interests and my influences make me enigmatic. I think any man can be that way - if you love enough interesting things.
I'm not trying to emulate or imitate. But I do believe that I embody that spirit from Robert Johnson on up.
Gnarls Barkley is an alter ego and something like an out of body experience.
I'm a normal guy at heart. But on stage, they don't pay me for normal.
Emotion is something that you don't simply receive. Emotion is compelled. Other than that, we're just shells until we're possessed or reanimated from time to time by different emotions.
I believe that the plight of life and all existence is to master one's self, you know, one day at a time.
The fact that you can love something that's lost is all of the incentive that you'll ever need to love again as opposed to becoming comfortably numb.
I want to burn as a beacon of possibility. I don't want nobody to misconstrue the commercial success I've had as anything other than an example of what black music is capable of. And what it's capable of is being more than just black. I'm not black or white anymore. I'm Cee Lo Green.
My first rap name was Ralo. Because my first name is Carlos. I likened myself to what Busta Rhymes was doing when he first came out. And what Onyx did when they first came out - they reminded me of me.
I have done quite a few things that I'm not proud of. But now I can equate it to artistry without an outlet. At school, I couldn't help but colour outside the lines. My passion just caused my reactions to be that much more volatile.
People have always questioned, Was I crazy? And I'm like, 'No, I'm not crazy. I'm just totally committed.'
In my opinion, hip-hop has a lot to do with rock and roll, because at one point it was considered an alternative - edgy, independent. Hip-hop is pots and pans the way that punk is garage. You make something out of nothing.
I think I wanted to be a punk-rocker before I wanted to be anything else. I remember wanting a mohawk, and I wanted to cut the sleeves off of my jean jacket because I used to want to be Dirty Dan from Sha-Na-Na. This is before hip-hop was even around. I had the skinny piano tie. I had it, man.
My relationship with food is intimate. I don't eat and tell.
I want a world where everything is welcome, everything is valid, everything is acknowledged, embraced, and accepted. To me, that's a perfect world.
