If I was money-motivated, I wouldn't have joined a rock band with three other Armenian guys.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Rock 'n' roll accepted me and paid me, even though I loved the big bands... I went that way because I wanted a home of my own. I had a family. I had to raise them. Let's don't leave out the economics. No way.
That's probably half the reason I wanted to be in a band - I wanted to see the world.
I just wanted to be a part of the band. Actually, that's what inspired me.
When I decided to go to a country that subsidized music, I went to the Soviet Union for two years.
You wouldn't want to be in a rock band - trust me.
I found a greater identity with my own emotions in the Armenian culture as I grew older, as well as from the beginning, although I didn't know anything about it.
I would've loved to have been in a band, but sadly I just wasn't good enough.
But I am Armenian and I understand what it is to lose a country and lose a family and have massacres and genocides and everything against my people.
For years the Trio did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people. We practically starved to death.
When I was younger, I was listening to a lot of Armenian music, you know, revolutionary music about freedom and protest. In the 70s I was listening to soul and the Bee Gees and ABBA, and funk.