Growing up in Vegas, over time you get to see shows like Tom Jones, Wayne Newton, I mean, The Rat Pack ran Vegas way, way back, and I'm a huge fan of that whole era and vibe.
— Ne-Yo
'Madden' is the closest thing to actually being on the field yourself. It's so ridiculously realistic. Before I play it, I honestly didn't understand. 'What's all the hype? It's a video game'. Then I sat down and played it, and you feel like you're on the field.
I feel like my music is for everybody. As long as the music is good, I can please everybody.
There's a whole advantage being an executive as an artist.
I write because I actually enjoy writing. It's a plus and a fringe benefit that, you know, I can actually provide for my family and, you know, a few people know my name - that's great.
'Let Me Love You' is about being brave enough to let a person get close enough to you to teach you how to love yourself, to teach you the importance of loving yourself.
I'm a rather multifaceted person - or at least I like to fashion myself as such - so my dreams are multifaceted. For example, I had a dream of winning a Grammy, right? I've done that three times over.
A man will talk all day about the woman he wants, but should he come across that woman, he'll do something stupid like cheat on her with the kind of woman he was trying to get away from in the first place. It's not a lot of second chances granted in the realm of that.
'Battle: Los Angeles' - I've got to say this was easily one of the most physically trying things that I've ever done in my life because I play a Marine in the film, and they had us training with real live Marines for, like, three weeks. It gave me a whole new respect for just the armed forces, period.
Ms. Clinton - Mrs. Clinton, I should say - she's a favorite of mine.
I would love to be able to say that due to my experience in the music industry, when it comes to the songs, I'm killing it over anybody else, but that is not the case. Everybody in this thing is ridiculously talented to where I don't feel special.
The Auto-Tune makes everybody sound the same and takes away all of the emotion because you're singing through this machine, and of course your taking all of this emotion out of your voice for the most part.
I wrote a song that basically turned into a public service announcement for the fellas out there, like, 'Should you run into this type of woman, run for your life!' So the name of the song is 'Run,' featuring the rapper ScHoolboy Q. It's one of the standouts on the album, in my personal opinion.
I've never viewed myself as above anybody else or anything like that. I'm a regular guy at the end of the day. I like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and The Powerpuff Girls.
Now that I have kids, I want my kids to appreciate my music, but at the same time, I don't want to teach them anything that they shouldn't know just yet.
For the first few years of my life my mom used to cut my hair so there were a lot of bowl-cut hair styles.
I pride myself on being the type of artist who can work half in the R&B world and half in the pop world.
Early inspirations included Michael Jackson, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie... Those were the people I actually wound up studying just to hone my craft.
I'm heavy into 'Max Payne 3'. That's a good one. I like any of the fighting games and all of the 'Tekken' and 'Street Fighter' series.
Movies take a long time because movies take a long damn time to put work into. Whereas music, you don't have as much time. I didn't realize that.
The unfortunate thing about this planet is that we are in no shortage of ignorance.
I needed to be sexier. I needed to be more hip. I needed to be more edgy and this and that. 'No, don't write that kind of song, write this type of song. No, don't work with that producer, work with this producer. No, don't wear those clothes, wear these clothes.' And I didn't want to be a puppet, you know?
As an artist, you know as a person in the public eye, period, you kind of have a responsibility to the younger kids that are watching and emulating what you do.
Temptation is just that - she's the girl you claim you don't want, but in the moment, you have more drinks than you should in the club. One thing leads to another, and suddenly you've done something really stupid. You've jeopardized what could've potentially been a really great relationship, all due to temptation.
You kinda don't know what's going to make a good song. You've got to shoot around in the dark for a little while.
The story of 'Libra Scale,' the storyline was created first, and then the music was created around the story line.
That has been everybody's challenge, above the dancing, the singing, the lines: getting into who these characters would be in 2015. Today's Tin Man is heartfelt, but he wouldn't be soft. Today's Dorothy would be sassy.
The name of the album is 'Non-Fiction'. And, I'm calling it that because the name of every song on this album is derived from a true story. Now, some of the stories are mine. Some of the stories belong to some of my fans.
There are different kinds of R&B happening today. There's the traditional, more soulful R&B that doesn't get the recognition that it deserves. Then there's the more hip-hop oriented stuff. You got your boy Ty Dolla $ign, people like that, who are bringing more hip-hop elements to R&B, which is cool.
Me as an artist, I'm more notorious for writing songs that celebrate women, songs that are all about the positive element of the immensely confusing creature that is woman.
I never really created a difference between Shaffer Smith, my actual name, and Ne-Yo. They are kind of one in the same. It's been a bit of a gift and a curse. As far as Shaffer Smith is concerned, I've never viewed myself as a celebrity.
When you're dressing on a budget, simplicity is key.
Hats have been my thing pretty much my whole life but finance has not. I would go to the corner store and buy really cheap baseball style caps and wear those to school.
My style is mainly about comfort. It has to be comfortable, it has to lay right on me, know what I mean?
All my musical influences came from my mom, who did everything to music. She played it 24 hours a day, seven days a week in our house. So that's where my love for music came from.
I'm good but not great at 'Madden'. I have friends that their whole life is based around this video game.
Back in the day, Motown was on the pulse of young America. It wasn't about just dope contemporary. It was pop, it was R&B, it was all of that.
I've never done this from a standpoint of, 'I want to be famous.' I sing because I love singing. I perform because I love performing.
Honestly, when I first heard that there were rumors out there about me being gay, I thought, 'Wow, someone must really hate me.' There's nothing wrong with being gay, but I just couldn't understand why someone would make up lies like that.
I dreamed of one day starring in a film. I've done that twice. Denzel Washington has done it countless times, so I still got some work to do.
I've never been the guy to go for the celebrity girl. I've always liked regular girls, regular people, because I've always viewed myself as a regular person who just happens to be gifted in music.
I'm gonna be honest: I was never really a fan of techno music, dance music.
We're falling into a place where melody is somewhat lacking in music. Everybody feels like, okay, too much melody or too much harmony, and it kind of goes over people's heads; they don't understand it.
My 'Slide Some Oil' ain't gon' be Nipsey Russell's 'Slide Some Oil.' Elijah Kelley's 'You Can't Win' ain't gon' be Michael Jackson's 'You Can't Win.'
Auto-tune is good to keep your notes intact, but it doesn't do much for the feel of your voice.
I always tell the story of 'Irreplaceable.' I initially wrote 'Irreplaceable' with myself in mind, with plans of it being my record. I love that record; however, what I realised about that record was that though given the circumstances of that situation - men and women are not that different - when you sing about it, it changes things, you know?
Via social media, I reached out, asking about relationships, dreams, hopes, fears, the whole gambit, and the stories that really resonated with me, I wrote songs about.
I know the music industry is based on a lot of smoke and mirrors in a lot of cases, such as making things look like one thing versus what it actually is. I feel like I've been here long enough that I've surpassed the need for any of that.
For my prom, I wore a white suit with a burgundy shirt, tie and cummerbund, along with white shoes, a white trilby and a cane. I was extra fly that day.
I have my diehard R&B fans on one side of the spectrum and my diehard pop and dance fans on the other side of the spectrum.
