Brian McKnight

The only award I’ve ever worked for or wanted really were the ones that were given to me by the fans. So, whether it’s a platinum record or hit songs, those are the ones that last the most.

I think when my brother (Claude who founded vocal sextet Take Six) got his deal and I saw him on the Grammys that was when I said, ‘oh, you know what? If he can do it then maybe I can do too’ and that’s when I really focused on trying to make it in this business.

Whenever I fill out the job description I put ‘songwriter’, never ‘singer’ or ‘artist.’ Singers come and go.

You can’t listen to what people who aren’t musical have to say. When Anytime was released, I had bad reviews, and at first I was hurt. Your songs are like your children. You don’t want to hear, ‘Your kid is ugly.’ But I knew the record was good and it would sell.

I listen to all kinds of songs. There’s something to be learned from every type of music and from the one making it, whether it’s pop or jazz or hip-hop.

I write about moments, and I don’t make blanket statements about anything because no one has all the answers; nobody’s come up with a foolproof way to do anything when it comes to emotions.

Music was our wife and we loved her. We stayed with her, clothed her and put diamond rings on her hands.

T-Bone was, to me, that sound of being in heaven.

I tried to connect my singing voice to my guitar an’ my guitar to my singing voice. Like the two was talking to one another.

If a Jazz musician plays someone else’s song, he has a responsibility to make a distinct and original statement.

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

I always play what I feel. I always feel like me, but I’m a different me every day. I get ideas from everything. A big color, the sound of water and wind, or a flash of something cool. Playing is like life. Either you feel it or you don’t.

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.

I can’t sing it straight. I have no choice but to swing it.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

When it comes to music, don’t lie to yourself; just tell yourself the truth.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

So until we see you again, bright moments and keep searchin’ for your mystery note on the universal piano of life.

If I don’t practice for a day, I know it… for two days, the critics know it… three days, the public knows it.

A good bassist determines the direction of any band.

I sought some kind of freedom in music, in the promise of transcendence and the idea that the purity and the innocence of a mythical god could somehow deliver me from darkness.