Brian McKnight

I just want people to take a step back, take a deep breath and actually look at something with a different perspective. But most people will never do that.

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’m the fifth generation of Seventh Day Adventists and the youngest of four brothers. When I was still very small, we formed a gospel quartet.

I kinda went back to that period between ’88 and ’94 where I felt like I was the most creative, without being hindered by powers that be. I was no longer going to try to hinder myself to what I thought was going to be on the radio.

When the label came to me to say, ‘would you like to do another record,’ I said, ‘Well I got these sixteen songs sitting here, so let’s do it.’ And that was pretty much it… I never stopped writing, it’s just the way that the business is now; you just try to find a different model.

I kind of hate the fact that people are always trying to put you into a category. I hate walls, and I hate boundaries. I don’t like that. I listen to everything.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man and bring tears to the eyes of woman.

The main thing is to be satisfied with your work yourself. It’s useless to have an audience happy if you are not happy.

Forgive me if I don’t have the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

It’s not that you want to sing, it’s that you have to sing.

Trying to play the new concept with a outward bound feeling.

A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

Les Paul was one of the great innovators of the early electric guitar, and he made some fantastic guitar records. To me, Les Paul is very much it.

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.

Music should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise. It’s easy to rediscover part of yourself, but through art you can be shown part of yourself you never knew existed. That’s the real mission of art. The artist has to find something within himself that’s universal and which he can put into terms that are communicable to other people. The magic of it is that art can communicate to a person without his realizing it.

Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.

What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?

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

You want the listener to find the song on their own, give too much away and it takes away from the imagination.

I am a writer – that is what I am before being a performer or musician. I love waking up in the morning and then going to sleep that night with something that did not exist.