I grew up in a condition where I could have chosen to go either way, negatively or positively. So I kind of chose to go positive and that stayed with me through my life, always have to have a positive outlook on whatever situation there is.
And I keep on fighting for the things I want. Though I know that when you’re dead you can’t. But I’d rather be a free man in my grave, than living as a puppet or a slave.
If you go out to Hollywood you’ll find a lot of fantastic plastic people there in the business and a lot of people in life generally. They find it so hard to be themselves that they have to be plastic.
I would love to see no more ghettos but the things is, there’s no diplomacy in the ghetto. They want to tell you something, they tell you straight!
In hindsight, I see the great value of family and how it moulded my life and kept me together. So now family means everything to me.
I’d rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave.
I’ve abused myself a lot over the years. But my voice is still intact – really, it’s better.
I don’t think a songwriter should lose their mojo. In my situation, I’m one of those artists that lasts over a long period rather than have your moment and your moment is gone.
I have not become the artist I believe I am. I want to become a stadium act. I’m not done at all.
I think we all have a role to play in life.
Everyone needs to realize why am I here? It comes in everyone’s life; you ask why am I here? What am I doing? Once you are able to answer that question for yourself honestly, you have smooth sailing.
I write songs on a universal basis. I was born out of the earth of Jamaica which I consider to be a part of Atlantis, the sunk continent, but that’s my thing. But I write songs on a universal basis, not like Jamaican songs.
The love is the part of us that can never go. It’s the essence that was always there, so that can never go.
I had the global outlook that I really wanted to capture the world. I would like the attention of the world at least and I wanted that.
I am not one of those artists who is cemented in one way. I am able to, you know, make the happy, jovial, lighthearted music too. We need that in life too. So it’s like that to me.
Certain artists have a role to echo the echoes of the people and that’s what I’ll be doing on my next album.
We need that expression. Whether we want to call it protest or not, we need to express and echo the echoes of the people. Artists need to do that.
I don’t know where life will lead me, but I know where I’ve been. I can’t say what life will show me, but I know what I’ve seen. Tried my hand at love and friendship, but all that is passed and gone. This little boy is moving on.
I’m an artist. And I’m happy that I was there at the commencement of this music, this Jamaican music, to put my contribution and help to establish it.
I visit studios. Just to get the feel, the smell, and see what other people are doing. Not only listening to the radio, but going to studios, greeting musicians and artists, just getting a vibe.
It’s important for me to go back into the ghetto, where I’m from. I still get my oxygen from there. I don’t live in the ghetto but every time I go back, I’m seeing the same things that I lived. That’s one of the things I mean when I say, “My feet back onto the ground.”