Daryl Hall Quotes

I'm just about the best singer I know, and it's time for everybody to say that. I have total facility with my voice. And for some weird reason, critics don't talk about it.

You don't have to be a good musician if you've got certain computer skills.

If you see me walking down the street, you're gonna see the same guy as you do on stage, dressed the same, looking the same, and nothing changes. I'm just one person.

I don't really strain my voice.

If Paul McCartney tells me that so-and-so song is his favorite song, what do I care? What do I care what anybody else says?

The younger generation gives me more respect than I could ever hope for.

Having a solo career is a funny thing.

I was a pioneer in MTV and I was there from the very beginning. So I saw how that developed and how loose it was and how much fun it was in its looseness. And I was influenced a lot by that.

I wanted to show the world, and myself too, what I can do. I came up in the world of Philadelphia soul, but I'm fluent in a lot of languages musically and I like working with different people from different generations.

I think an artist's true worth comes through an inter-generational thing - when you go beyond your own time, and start influencing people in a greater way than just what surrounds you.

In the early '70s, I started to feel like Philadelphia soul was the black-sheep brother of rock and roll. I decided to try to get away from it.

Every artistic form has its golden age, and unfortunately I think the golden age for whatever I do probably ended about 1990.

I definitely dislike pomposity and artifice. I hope that I'm not that. Once I write a song, it belongs to the world, and the way people perceive it, it's cool.

Obscurity is just obscurity. There's no romance in obscurity.

The first thing I ever did was play talent shows at the Uptown Theater and the Adelphi Ballroom.

I think Philadelphia has been underrated over the years as a musical region.

In my Philly neighborhood, black and white kids hung together without even thinking about it. The spirit of Martin Luther King was alive and well.

I was very inspired by my mother. She was a vocal teacher and sang in a band, and my first memories of her were going out with her on the local circuit.

I was always an introvert as a kid. Then, when I first kind of came out as a human being, I used to be one of those guys who'd go nuts on the dance floor, and people would gather around.

I'm not a big fan of any video, especially my own. In a word, I hated the Hall & Oates videos.

When you're playing in front of people, everything is external. It's all going from you out to an audience. When you're in a studio, it's very internalised, it's going from the air through you into this meticulously crafted, layered piece of work.

Nobody really cares about what other people think anymore; they're all about themselves.

I grew up in a very racially integrated place called Pottstown. It was an agricultural / industrial town which has since become a suburb of Philadelphia. I grew up basically in a black neighborhood.

Late 20th century music was a really important thing. It changed the world, and I'm part of that, and now I'm part of the museum that celebrates that.

I've always been a spontaneous singer. And all the stuff that you hear on the end of the songs, what they call the ad libs - that just comes out of my head. That's not thought out at all. I have the verses and the choruses, and then after that it's total improvisation.

What I do isn't black music; it's just my music.

I've got a sense of humor. I'm a funny guy.

The Internet allows me to be more free.

When I was a kid, I always looked up to people like B.B. King and Ray Charles.

I've watched the world crash and burn in every sense. I've watched the record industry crash and burn; politically I've watched it crash and burn, financially crash and burn.

If you can sing, you never lose your voice. If you don't know how to sing, your voice goes away because you sing from your throat.

I'm always interested in what fans think.

I'm used to the egos in the 1960s, '70s and '80s where people just expected massive success and thought it was their birth right to be successful.

If you are a superstar, or whatever you want to call yourself, a person who's had outrageous success, and you decide to go indie and tell the record companies to screw themselves? That takes a certain amount of courage. And bullheadedness, really.

I've been watching RFD-TV for a few years. As a person who lives mostly in the country, I appreciate a network that shows the many facets of rural life.

I was just like a 21st century person waiting to be born, and this is the medium that I thrive in. And I feel stronger now than I did any time since I've been a teenager - I mean, musically, creatively.

The song 'Laughing Down Crying' is not a typical Daryl song.

Americans think that if you're popular, there must be something wrong with you.

The difference between me and other people in my generation is instead of saying the Internet's killing the record business, I say, 'Who cares about the record business, the Internet is enhancing music.'

Everybody who I ever cared about has told me that they like my music: Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Al Green, The Spinners, Smokey Robinson. Everybody that matters.

You don't have to be a good singer any more if you can rap well.

My fan base is really expanding into an inter-generational thing - it's what every artist probably hopes for.

As a singer, I float around. I'm kind of scatty, bouncing around a lot. I try to adapt to what's going on around me in the song and the arrangement.

I love antique architecture, so if I have any indulgences, I have owned and renovated and reconstructed a lot of old houses.

I always say the same thing - believe in what you do, do it, and don't veer away from the truth of it.

You externalise extreme emotions, and you look at them objectively and understand them from a different standpoint.

If you're African American, you are forced into making different choices, in a lot of cases, than you are as a white person.

I specialize in early homes, and what I care about the most is renovating a home and taking it back to its original construction idea.

You must always be very cautious and be as vigilant as you can. You work diligently to provide a secure environment,.

The whole American pop culture started in Philadelphia with 'American Bandstand' and the music that came out of that city.

I'm quite an eclectic musician.

I don't like showboating. I was never a fan of showing off.

I'd like to see more crossover between white and black music. That's something I've been advocating for years.

Art is a continuum.

If you work hard and you're good, you can build something for yourself.

I'm in the trenches; I do the best work I can always do. Having said that, the way that what I do converges with the outside world is fascinating to me. Because it ebbs and flows. People's interest and understanding, it changes all the time.