Top 83 Quotes & Sayings by Shawn Amos

In my early performing days, I played gigs under the pseudonym Whitey McFearsun. I painted my face blue, wore crimson lipstick, and strung on some tight silver latex pants.

In the '60s, my father, Wally Amos, had been a talent agent and a personal manager before taking a major career detour in 1975, when he opened a store selling chocolate chip cookies.

Leave a movie audience inspired, and they will want to ingrain that movie into their lives with the toys, branded food products, soundtracks, and clothing they buy.

For years, I've felt like the loneliest brother on the planet. I don't play basketball, I can't dance, and I'd rather listen to Harry Nilsson than hip hop.

The same basic tools we've used for thousands of years to connect with people, to draw them in and to hold their attention will always work, even if we're telling our stories 140 characters at a time.

I get my clothes from three sources: Target, thrift shops, and friends. It's simple and it's cheap.

There is a difference between a hand out and a help up. Brothers need to help brothers. They don't do it enough.

Every major summer blockbuster that is released is essentially a product line being launched across multiple verticals. However, the centerpiece of the product launch is a big, beautiful story whose job is to entertain.

New York City has more rock history in its 305 square miles than most of America combined.

There was a time when a musician was forced to act in a video. Seeing a singer step too far outside of his comfort zone to pour all of his high-school-drama angst into a poorly scripted scenario was a sight to behold.

The Dolls were the forefathers of glam. You never knew if they were going to kiss you or punch you. More than likely, they'd do both.

We all love to sing along with our favorite songs. We sing in the car, in the shower, and at the karaoke bar. The problem is that half the time we don't know what we're singing. We're making up lyrics as we go along and hoping no one will notice.

Despite the sometimes sordid turns his life took, Michael Jackson always held my fascination, like he did for most of us.

The Woodstock dove on the iconic poster is really a catbird. And it was originally perched on a flute.

Harlem's Apollo is probably the most well-known music hall in the world.

Google+ will never have a user base to rival Facebook's. It just won't. Not even if you include the 'users' who create accounts so that they can use other Google services.

Protest is patriotic. Since the beginning of musical time, American singers and songwriters have used their talent and bully pulpits to show us America's strengths and shortcomings.

In the world of celebrity, there is one universal law: if there's a scandal or death, Al Sharpton will be there.

If I were a rock star, I'd design my own clothes. I'd do it because that's the mark of a true rock star.

Social media is social. We're looking to touch one heart at a time. With one great story at a time.

The Republicans need all the entertainment help they can get. When Charlie Daniels was one of your convention headliners, you know you need some serious help.

The late, great Janis Joplin could drink ten men under the table, then sing loud enough to shake the teeth out of their head.

When Woodstock ended on Monday morning, over 600 acres of garbage was left behind on Max Yasgur's farm. It took over 400 volunteers and $100,000 to remove it all.

The rise of digital technology put marketers in a bind. No longer a captive audience, consumers were splitting their time across devices, social networks and websites.

Blues became rock, rock became soul, and all of it was colorblind.

Schizoaffective disorder is a big mental mash-up of a disease. It combines just about every disorder, from depression, delusions, and paranoia to mania, schizophrenia and hallucinations. My mother bounced between all of these regularly while raising me alone in our Hollywood home.

If you're going to write an anthem for an old man who's up at political bat for the last time, give him a decent song. Send him off with something that creates some chills or something.

We are more than the work we perform. In fact, I'd say that our work is a mere representation of who we are underneath.

The blues is deceptively simple. Verse and chorus. Sometimes not even a chorus. Four bars that repeat, no Auto-Tune, electricity optional. It is the most direct, bare-bones of content. There is no interference between the head and heart.

We all know the record biz don't pay. All musicians have day jobs - no matter how big they are.

Brands frantically tried to compete for users' fragmented attention, spraying content on every platform in a 24/7 race to stay relevant.

The Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookie was an unexpected, unplanned pop culture phenomena. My father went from star-maker to star.

From chain gangs to folk songs to intelligent soul, America has created musicians dedicated to truth, justice, and a better American Way.

Her makeup, hair and general quirkiness overshadow the fact that Cyndi Lauper was one the most soulful chicks to come out of the '80s.

My father's very public life as Famous Amos was the opposite of that of his ex-wife, my mother Shirley, who was fighting a very private, solitary battle with mental illness.

From their '61 Cavern Club debut to their last rooftop concert eight years later, The Beatles gave every serious artist in their wake the songbook and sound for their career. It's the musical trough from which nearly every musician drinks.

Year after year, we see a new crop of musicians who do their best to look tough in lipstick and makeup. Maybe it's a cry for help, an admission of their strong feminine side, or the realization that they don't look so good any other way. Whatever the reason, makeup is as rock n' roll as a Marshall stack.

Musicians burn through more cash than the Federal Reserve.

Memphis is the place where rock was born and Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed. It's full of contradictions, abject poverty, and riches that only music can provide.

Long before Wesley Snipes decided he didn't need to pay the IRS, Willie Nelson was dodging the tax men.

A few performances have been left out of the various Woodstock soundtracks and film edits over the years, most notably The Grateful Dead.

Chrissie Hynde is the coolest woman alive, and no man can have her.

There's a reason for Art Garfunkel's oddly shaped hair. It hides a very big brain.

Depending on your political orientation, the Dixie Chicks are either the great defenders of free speech or American traitors.

In Los Angeles, parenting is a competitive sport. From Beverly Hills baby boutiques to kids' yoga classes, L.A. fuses high style, industrial-strength materialism, and parental outsourcing into our own unique version of child-rearing.

Technology has the benefit of being easily scalable. A few weeks or months of coding can result in solutions that reap huge benefits. The global success of Facebook, Twitter, and Google are all triumphs of technology.

Chrissie Hynde is the blueprint for any teenage pop star wannabe looking to have some real cred.

At its best, American music is the soundtrack of our long - and often painful - march toward a more perfect union.

Many cities make music, but no city breathes music quite like Memphis. The songs and sounds that come from here are uniquely American.

While my six-song EP is unlikely to set any sales records, it's one of my biggest personal achievements - on par with starting my own company. On par with selling my own company.

Throughout the '50s, tons of unknown locals came through Sun to record their demos. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis all made their first recordings at the former Memphis Recording Service.

When I was growing up in L.A. in the late '70s and early '80s, Michael Jackson's was the first face on TV that looked like mine.

Black people cannot look to government to solve their problems.

The Bangles are proof that short skirts and electric guitars go hand-in-hand. They are one of the great all-girl groups, backing up their looks with a serious pop-rock pedigree.

You can talk about Michael Jackson all you want, but John Hughes was the soundtrack to my 1980s life.

The world moves fast. Business moves fast. Digital media moves extremely fast. It is far too easy to allow ourselves to be constantly blown from one trend to the next.

Brands' products should be the manifestation of a company's values. Those values should be the subject of all sorts of wonderful stories that comprise your company's narrative.

Woodstock was a business. A very poorly run business.

We're all posting and clicking and sharing, but we're not devoting enough attention to get anything meaningful from it all.

Every single tune you know from the 1940s until the 1970s was written, arranged, and demoed in the Brill Building. OK, maybe not every song, but writers from Benny Goodman to Lieber & Stoller to Neil Diamond all kept offices there.