Bobby McFerrin's Quotes
Born: 1950-03-11
Profession: Musician
Nation: American
Biography of Bobby McFerrin
It's not that I don't love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off to college as soon as possible.
Tags: Children, Love, OffPart of our responsibility as parents, as adults, is to set examples for children. But we have to like children in order to be really happy fulfilled adults.
Tags: Children, Happy, ParentsBut, if there's any aspect of my career that needs attention, it's writing.
Tags: Attention, Career, WritingI do a lot of performing, but don't get a chance to go to the studio and write good music.
Tags: Chance, Good, MusicI don't want anything to get in the way of me and my singing. I want my mind as clear as possible.
Tags: Mind, Possible, SingingI grew up in a time when being a musician and learning to be a musician was actually very wonderful.
Tags: Learning, Time, WonderfulI have a lot of albums yet to do.
Tags: AlbumsI like to use the audience as my color palette, my instrument.
Tags: Audience, Color, InstrumentI prepared five songs, I sang them, and he hired me. I started working about a month later at the piano bar.
Tags: Songs, Started, WorkingMy father was a very disciplined singer who worked hard at his craft, and I was around that growing up.
Tags: Father, Growing, HardI did the one concert, and I was not bitten by the conducting bug, and I thought I was done, but then the phone started to ring, and gradually, over time, I started conducting more and more. Now a third of my performances are with orchestras.
Tags: Done, Thought, TimeI like a very dark house, just black. I sit there and just think. Once I'm still and quiet inside, I'll begin. It's very personal; it has to be. One song may be Bach, the next blues, a song from TV, or a nursery rhyme or jazz piece.
Tags: Black, Dark, MayI'd actually been making my living as an organist with bands since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, and then as a senior in high school I put together a jazz quintet called The Bobby Mack Jazz Quintet.
Tags: Living, School, TogetherIf I can bring joy into the world, if I can get people to stop thinking about their pain for a moment, or the fact the tomorrow morning they're going to get up and tell their boss off... then I'll be successful.
Tags: Morning, Pain, SuccessfulMiles Davis turned his back to the audience when he came out on stage, and he offended people. But, he wasn't there to entertain; he was all about the music. I kind of do that.
Tags: Audience, Music, StageSeriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and jazz in the home all the time.
Tags: Home, Music, TimeThen I came up with this crazy idea just to walk out on the stage with no band at all and just start singing whatever came to mind. I actually fought the idea for a while because it seemed almost too radical, but it became obvious what I was supposed to be doing.
Tags: Crazy, Mind, StartThen I left that school and I went to Cerritos College, which was in southern California; they had one of the best big band programs in the country at the time.
Tags: Best, School, TimeThen when I was in grammar school I played the clarinet, and then, after clarinet I played the flute in college orchestra - besides singing in the college chorus and things like that.
Tags: After, College, School