A lot of people change for good. Some people just fall off. Just trying to progress in anything, no matter what you're doing, I feel like any progression you make... some people aren't gonna be around you that were around you.
If I'm not working, I really have nothing to do with it - I'm not hanging out and mixing with film people. Not that I have anything against film people; they're some of the best people around and some of the worst people around, just like in any business... they just gesticulate a little bit more.
Be yourself and do what you actually like doing as an artist. Don't try to think too much about where am I gonna fit in here, and how is this gonna be received, and who is gonna like this? Just do what you like doing and make sure that you enjoy doing it. If you do that and you get good at it by practising, then people are gonna come around - there's so many people out there that listen to all kinds of music. It's important to just do what you like, otherwise the fun gets sucked out of it.
A lot of times, you land in a city, and you're like, 'This is not my people.' I'm gonna do the show, but you don't feel like this is for you. And then, some places, you just go and just fall into a groove, and you're like, 'This feels right.'
I got to talk to people like Mel [Lewis] and Milt Hilton and Benny Carter and Clark Terry and... Jay McShann. I just found myself in some circumstances, on some gigs or sometimes in clubs, with the ability to talk to some of these people. Just being around their energy and being around that history was invaluable. And what I normally say to young people that are getting into the music, if you can and go... now there's less of those folks around, sadly.
I feel like, you know, some people like to wear colorful stuff. Some people like to be blacked down, and some people just want to be colorful. Some people just have weird problems. I'm never going to wear a pink sweater. Some people just do it because they feel like they can do it.
I admire people who are suited to the contemplative life. They can sit inside themselves like honey in a jar and just be. It's wonderful to have someone like that around, you always feel you can count on them. You can go away and come back, you can change your mind and your hairdo and your politics, and when you get through doing all these upsetting things, you look around and there they are, just the way they were, just being.
When you put yourself out there as an expert and the people you are trying to attract are people who want to do the very show you are doing, guys standing around, sitting around arguing with each other over sports, if you make a mistake that lights up like a flare in the middle of the night. You've just got to correct that or else they're going to say, 'Well, why do these dopes have that show? I can go out there and be just as good as them.'
You only can do what you can do. Just make sure you're pleased with it as a individual and then you know some people gonna like it some people ain't, that's just part of the game.
In far Eastern Russia, there's just some towns that time has forgotten. I guess they used to maybe be industrial or something that are now there's just lots of rusty hulks of buildings and a lot of people wandering around, a lot of alcoholism and violence because people have got nothing to do and no work. Yet people were very generous.
I watch the people I hang around, 'cause if you hangin' with people who still got their foot in the street, that really involves you as well. It's definitely all about the company I keep. If you don't want anything to do with the streets or whatever, but you got everybody around you in the street, you just as much a part of it as they are. A lot of times it's very hard; you gotta straight cut off people, you know what I mean? If it ain't good for you, you just gotta turn your back to it.
Stick with the global warming for just a second, because you're fully aware that I call it a hoax, and that might be off-putting to some. The simplest way to explain to people who want to believe it's true - and you know who they are. Those are people looking for ways to make themselves matter. They run around and they hear that they're to blame for the world getting warm, or that the country is, our prosperity, our high standard of living and the fact that we've stolen all these resources from around the world, that we're using more oil than we have any right to.
No matter you a rapper, actor, ball player, figure skater, some people gonna like you some people ain't, you just hope that the majority is more like than dislike.
I dance for freedom. I dance for people's reaction more than anything. I feel great and I feel like I can do anything, say anything while I'm dancing and nobody can care. I do have times when I'm angry and I literally do slam my bedroom door and dance all around my bedroom. It's a good way of getting energy out and it's a good way of doing things, but I do it purely just to entertain other people.
One of the things I like best about 'Biggest Loser' is being around people who are trying to make the right choices. When you feel defeated about your weight and your health, like there's no hope, and you still make the choice to fight for it, to make the change happen no matter what people say or think, that's inspiring to me.
I like happy sets. Happy sets are good, and I think people feel comfortable on them. When fear arrives in any context it's just boring and it closes people down. If people feel inadequate or if they feel bullied... It might work for some people but I think, as a rule, it just takes any joy out of the creative process.
L.A. gives me a lot. L.A. is a city of extremes. People come here from all over the world that have these, like, giant ideas, and they put everything into it. And some people just fall flat on their face, and some people, you know, shoot like a rocket.