Growing up, my favorite group was New Edition. I loved the opportunity to do the remix to Bobby Brown's song 'Get Away'. I told myself that I would have my own group like New Edition one day.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The groups, though, were my inspiration way back then. I liked Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers.
I was very into New Order, Joy Division, all of that when I was younger. I had a lot of bootlegs that I saved up my pocket money to buy. I had all the obscure early EPs.
After a while, though, the group just wasn't a good vehicle for the songs I'd written.
My first album done what it had to do. It introduced me.
Growing up, I liked all the stuff that everyone else was listening to, like Motown, but the biggest group of all was The Beatles.
I had a brother six years older than me, so I wasn't just listening to teenybopper stuff. My brother had the cooler music, but my parents had the Burt Bacharach, Tom Jones, the Association, the Fifth Dimension; these groups were un-cool, but I secretly loved them.
We were really grown up for our age and it was an incredible special band.
I've been with the group since 1965. I will be beginning my fifth year on April ninth this year.
When I was in bands, I always liked the demo best.
The band that changed my life was The Who. It's hard to pick just one album, but if I had to pick the one that really showed me how things could be done, it's 'The Who Sell Out.' They really went to town on that, doing something that no one had ever done before.