I love Hank Williams songs, but I love hearing Ray Charles sing them much more.
— Michael McDonald
Pat Simmons and I always had a great blend together. We did the background vocals on a Little Feat track called 'Red Streamliner,' and that was great fun. I always really loved the way it turned out.
I think every ounce of pain in just living always ends up being the best thing that happened to me. It's always a growth period. I learn at the speed of pain.
I remember one of my favorite all-time records was by Edwin Starr: 'Stop Her on Sight.'
When I was younger, I was pretty cavalier about my voice - I don't know that I even thought about it that much, to be honest with you.
I do love the Nat King Cole stuff, the classic Christmas records. There's something about putting those records on and hearing his voice at Christmastime that brings back a lot of great memories of growing up.
I think it takes longer for me to make a record than most artists.
Warner Bros. was a great label to be affiliated with. It's the best label out there, and the fact that I was with them for 20 years was just an honor.
My wife is, by and large, the best thing that ever happened to me.
Everything's challenging for me, singing-wise. I'm like an old truck with one gear left on it.
I'm not the kind of artist who can just gear myself to a particular radio format without looking like a fashion victim.
I grew up in the era where everybody wanted to sing like Mitch Ryder and James Brown. And I did, too. But I learned real quick that it hurts after a while.
I just don't think many people would have crossed the street to hear me doing a hip hop-influenced album!
Probably some of the most miserable years of my life were grappling with some definition of what success was.
I enjoy it immensely, but I'm not comfortable on stage as a person.
Hey, I'd love to have a hit single, but if that doesn't happen, I'm not going to complain.
I've come to learn that music speaks for itself.
I'm a big country fan. I remember, as a kid, when Ray Charles did the 'Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music' record. That's one of the reasons I became a country fan.
Working with Thundercat was really a thrill.
Brian Owens is a young guy from Ferguson, Missouri, my hometown, who I don't think emulates me at all, but I really enjoy his particular style. He kind of makes me think of the older school of soul singers like Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye.
We try to promote the Christmas season and remind people that it is a season of peace. That's what the season's real meaning is about. No matter what religion you are, there is that point in time where we should celebrate that idea of peace and humanity.
I'm a very slow songwriter; it takes me sometimes years to write one song, if I ever finish.
I like to celebrate the holiday season - not so much in a religious way, per se, but in a unifying way.
Most of my life is taken up with family. It takes me awhile to get a record together that I feel is worthy of putting out.
I was attracted to black music for the same reason that I loved those old Irish ballads. Both were social statements of sorts, and both were indigenous to their respective cultures: Ireland, where my father had grown up, and towns like St. Louis along the Mississippi River, where I was growing up.
I've never felt that I was doing anything more worthwhile musically than when I was with Steely Dan.
Where I grew up in St. Louis, Saturday was country music day on television. We'd watch the Bill Anderson show, the Willie Nelson show, the Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner show, and always the Grand Ole Opry. My parents were fans of that music, and my friend's parents would pull the TV out and watch those shows on the porch.
I could never be grateful enough to the Doobies for the opportunities the organization gave me over the years.
I played so many clubs growing up, and back in that period, in the '60s, we'd play, like, four, five sets a night.
What I particularly liked about Nineties hip hop was it had a certain reverence for the groove that I hadn't been hearing in a while.
I think when you're not prepared for something, success can be as crippling a thing as failure to people. I think it touches whatever insecurities you have, that you may not be as in touch with you as you should be or whatever.
I grew up with this idea that songwriters had a great job. My family was Irish Catholic, so if you became a priest or a songwriter, you were golden.
Like everyone else, I have a lot of things I'd like to do that I'll probably never get around to. But for the most part, I live day to day.
No matter what anyone else thinks, if someone appreciates what you do, whether it's 10 people or a million people, it's all good - because the only reason you make music is to have someone appreciate it.
I've always written short stories.
I write about humility, because it's something I hope I one day actually possess.
The Stax/Volt stuff is really what I grew up on.
I've always had a dream that I might write a Christmas song that might resonate with people during the holidays.
It's funny how, as we get older, what become our fondest memories are not necessarily the happiest times of our lives but the times of our lives that shaped us the most.
Whenever I sing blues from the '50s or the kind of blues that you might have heard Eric Clapton or Duane Allman emulate, I often feel the similarity of some of the ragtime stuff I sang early on. A lot of the phrasing and the harmonization is the same.
I know that things change and markets change. Those are the realities of the business.
Laziness can be virtuous in the right setting, I guess.
When I was with the Doobies, the style of music was that we all went over the falls with chord progressions, trying to make things as complex and interconnected as possible.
I've felt the noose tightening for me for years at the major labels, where you're allowed to do less and less of what you would do most naturally and expected to do something that was expected to be saleable.
For me, one of the best things of having been a Doobie Brother is that the people involved always were great people.
I tell my son, when your music becomes less relevant, your pathetic comic value might be of some use. So you've got to go with it, you know.
I don't know that we ever overcome doubt. We just have to remember that it's more than likely a poodle in the bushes and not a grizzly bear.
I think, as musicians, that's really all we want is to keep working. We want to have a reason to be, and we want to play for as many people in this span of life that we're allowed as we possibly can, and in as many places as we possibly can.
My musical education started before I could see over the dashboard, just listening to the radio and cranking up our favorite songs as they came on.
Frankly, I think it's flattering to be compared to someone like Michael Bolton, who I think is a phenomenal singer with a spectacular range.
