Bobby McFerrin

I have a lot of albums yet to do.

The true musician is to bring light into people’s hearts.

Don’t worry, be happy!

The first time I ever had to go overseas for music was to play the Royal Festival Hall in London, singing in a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, and that week was insane: Thursday I rehearse with the orchestra; Friday I sing two songs in front of 2,500 people, which I have never done before; and the next day I go to Abbey Road to record with Herbie Hancock; and then I am playing a pub in south London somewhere, and nobody cares because London have lost some sporting match; and then I go home and I’m standing in front of my washing machine, putting my unmentionables into the dryer, and in that instant, I just looked at myself and said ‘This life is going to be strange’.

I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.

New artists can own their content and completely build their base and their following without having to sell or be owned by anybody and it creates such a diversity.

The way I look at it, they’re all part of my musical diary, and I can listen to any one of them and it will bring up memories of what was going on at that time.

I don’t believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.

When I start writing songs and it turns into an overly belabored intellectual process, I just throw it out.

I cannot say what I think is right about Music. I only know the rightness of it.

I don’t intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was the dreamweaver, but although I’ll be around I don’t intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don’t want to die at 40.

The Blues is never old.

All I play is truth and emotion.

With songwriting I spend a lot of time living life, accruing all these experiences, journaling, and then by the time I get to the studio I’m teeming with the drive to write.

My role in society, or any artist or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.

I always had a deep feeling to be one with the very minute I’m in.

You could go out and eat and come back and the note would still be playing.

I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.