I heard Otis Redding singing 'These Arms of Mine' and I knew that was the band I needed.
My parents' record collection was the music I was hearing as long as I can remember, and I would play Otis Redding over and over again.
When I was 14, I heard Otis Redding in a club local to me, and I was blown away. It leaped out at me and went straight to my heart. I set my sights on singing like that.
Remember those black-and-white films with Frank Sinatra? Those guys looked like men and they were only 27! Listen to Otis Redding singing 'Try A Little Tenderness'. That was a man who understood what a man has to know in the world. Show me a real man now! Where are they?
When I started playing, I played in R&B bands. I played James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and all that.
I was just a music lover who wondered what it would sound like if Otis Redding strapped on a guitar and played in a punk band. That's it.
I was just a music lover who wondered what it would sound like if Otis Redding strapped on a guitar and played in a punk band. Thats it.
Bob Dylan and John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen, these are soul guys. Bruce Springsteen might not sing like Otis Redding, but he sings with white soul. He's singing and he's writing songs from the bottom of his gut.
As a kid, I loved to sing along to the Drifters and Otis Redding.
I got the idea of what a band should be from listening to Booker T and Otis Redding.
People like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding - I do not put myself in that category.
I grew up loving Etta James and Aretha Franklin and Al Green and Otis Redding, and I just love old-school R&B. It's just music that moves you and grooves you, and it was very important, I think, for music.
Beyonce, Otis Redding, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, and Adele are a few of my favorites.
I'm a real Otis Redding fan, and I just think he sounds so good. He sounds like he's always at the end of a long day, and he just won't give up. I just love his wearied devotion - that beautiful, beautiful, weathered sound.
My father was a singer. So it just kind of happened that one Sunday while my dad was singing, I just walked out and stood next to him, and I started singing the song that he was leading, and I sang it in perfect pitch.
I just think, who wants new soul? I want my soul to be the same as Otis Redding, I don't wanna have a new one.