Clive Davis Quotes
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Having lost both my parents as a teenager, family is so important to me, and I cherish my time with my children and grandchildren. I have four children, and they all became lawyers - as I was myself before I got into music.
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I play no instruments.
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The music began, and it was one of those life-changing moments. I saw an artist, Janis Joplin. She was exhilarating. She was vibrating. And she was like no other artist that I had ever seen before... It struck me that hard. Maybe the word is epiphany, when you get that special sensation.
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I had no idea what awaited me when I took a job with CBS Records, and it was a total surprise to find I had a gift and an ear for music.
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I did not develop my ear. I discovered I had an ear, and it was an accident.
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You see the genius that Whitney Houston has as an interpreter of material, and you realize why genius can be applied to only a few interpretive performers. She finds meaning and depth and soulfulness in a song that often the writer and composer never really knew was there.
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There will come a time when very few will care about other people's sexual preference - or preferences.
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In this age when people expect to get their music for free, we have to work out how we can protect the rights of creative artists so they are compensated fairly and that the record business itself remains sound and healthy.
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After my second marriage failed... I said, 'You know, could I have a relationship with a man? A loving relationship with a man that would involve intimacy?' For a while, before I did get into a relationship, I saw, for a few years, either women or men. And I found that I could be attracted to both.
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Watching artists like Joplin perform, I felt that tingle down my spine; I experienced the wonders of a cultural and musical revolution.
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I never paid attention when the LP became the cassette and the cassette became the CD and now we're dealing, you know, with MP3s. It's okay.
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To this day, there's nobody, nobody that sounds like Janice Joplin.
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I feel blessed that I found not just a profession, but a 24/7 way of life that I purely love. That curiosity to be current, to listen to the Hozier album, to be early in recognition of a Lorde and spending time with her and Miguel, the pleasure of seeing new talent erupt... I love it.
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I encourage the study of music. And the immersion. 'Cause my life has been so enriched by being involved in music as I have.
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I feel that contemporary music, with very few exceptions, is missing the voice. You see an award show, you see a hundred extras on set dancing and special effects, and you don't see that solo voice that was the trademark of Adele. It's no accident that it was her album that ended up selling 27 million copies worldwide.
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My 'act' was schoolwork. I was your basic, garden-variety, ambitious, upwardly mobile, hard-working Jewish boy from Brooklyn. I was bound to go beyond my parents. It was simply the way things were.
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The story of Rod Stewart, the story of Carlos Santana is so inspiring to young musicians because it shows in this trendy business how long a career can last. It shows how you can soar back, regardless of age.
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I'm the keeper of the flame for Whitney Houston. She was the greatest... and I don't want the world to forget that.
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It's not for me to determine what a country artist has in common with a hip-hop artist. You go for those with long-lasting careers. And that's what I've had as my target all my life.
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The purity of finding the right artist, that artist that's gonna be the next hall of famer, that artist that's gonna be the next headliner, lifting people out of their seats at Madison Square Garden, that song that's gonna be sung for hundreds and hundreds of years, that essence remains the same.
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I had no idea that I was ever getting into music. I did not prepare for a music career, and here I've found, out of pure luck, that I did have, not only a talent and an ear, but a passion for music. And I have it to this day.
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The adage that you're either gay or straight or you're lying, well, that's not true. Bisexuality does exist.
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My introduction of Whitney was that if there's going to be one performer for the next generation who combined the beauty and lyric phrasing of a Lena Horne with those Gospel fiery roots of an Aretha Franklin, it would be Whitney Houston.
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I would say, from an all-around point of view, Bruce Springsteen is one of the two great poet lords of America, Bob Dylan, coming out of the music world, the two of them.