Jonny Lang quotes:

My parents had a huge pile of records - vinyl! - that I loved, especially the Motown stuff, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding.

My dad was good friends with the Bad Medicine Blues Band - one of the only blues bands in Fargo, as you can imagine! He took me out to see them play when I was 12 years old and I was really inspired by their guitar player, Ted Larsen.

Probably my favorite artists to listen to James Taylor, Stevie Wonder - I haven't gone back in a really long time and really listened to them - my first guitar influences. It's been awhile since I revisited that.

I moved from Minnesota out to Los Angeles and I thought I was going to hate it out there, but I really like it.

I've been getting into different gospel artists; Aretha Franklin is someone I've been listening to a lot of.

During a big rock show, you can flub a few things and nobody will hear it, because it gets buried under everything else.

I have an awesome church home and an awesome Pastor down in L.A., and I couldn't be happier.

I think I've just gotten better at learning how to write a song.

If you get raised up having everything you want and then get put out in the world and try to live your own life, you've never had anything to train you how to live.

I hope that it can relate to and be a blessing to anybody, with the hope that someday they will find Jesus Christ to be the same God that I've found Him to be.

Well, I got married about two and a half years ago, and that's been a big change in my life.

I'm not a fast, stream-of-consciousness lyricist at all - I know some guys who are, and if there is one skill I wish I had, it's that.

It's an honor to win a Grammy, of course.

I think my favorite thing is the mystery of life - it makes you feel that much better about accomplishing something.

I've probably gone a month or two without playing guitar, just because I've gotten so burnt on it touring all year or whatever.

Apparently, there's this whole set of disgruntled people but obviously it's not my intention to offend anyone by changing the style of music that I've done.

I think the people at my record label know I'm a Christian and again, I've been really blessed that I've never had to get into a head-butt war over moral standards or anything like that.

Right now I really enjoy writing songs.

Right, yeah, you know, my favorite thing just globally about music is just hopefully I'm able to be, you know, blessing the people in any way that I can.

Some of my influences are black gospel artists so I definitely want to do a soul-gospel type thing.

It's just satisfying for me to be able to write kind of like a finished, nice product.

I love all kinds of different music.

I think in the future I will end up doing a gospel album.

I see a lot of parents now who are really supporting their kids playing music.

Yeah, touring can get rough some times and draining, but I always have to pinch myself and realize that I'm doing what I love.

Sometimes I'll get a burst when I write lyrics, it usually happens in 20 minutes and I'll write the whole song, and that's really the only way it feels comfortable.

Who I am musically I hope will just keep changing and changing.

My dad used to play drums in a country band, and my mom is an incredible singer.

My passion is for playing music and although everyone needs a break sometimes just to keep things interesting and fresh, there's no way I would ever give that up.

I really enjoy what I do and have been fortunate to pursue basically whatever I'm feeling at the time.

I think it's like everything you do is just a reflection of who you are as an artist.

I think you have to know exactly what you want. Whether you want to be a guitar player or a musician, you have to be really focused on it if you really want to do it.

I wanted to have something that I was proud of and that I knew people would enjoy.

I'm glad I didn't know certain things earlier, because then it wouldn't be any fun.

I'm glad I've learned what I've learned when I learned it.

I've been in fortunate position of never really having to battle with my record company to do the things I wanted to do in the studio.

I've literally become comfortable with approaching whatever style of music at any time.

It seemed at first that everybody was more concerned with my age.

I have way too many songs that have music but don't have lyrics.

I feel so blessed, and God has been so good to me.

I think I'm more influenced, just in general, not by blues artists, but more by stuff from Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder is probably my biggest musical influence of all. And Donny Hathaway.

When I began my career, I was constantly referred to as the kid who could play the blues.

Well, people who are blues purist types are usually the most vocal and the ones that pop up on the websites.

When you get just that right audience and just that right sound on stage and you can just sit back and kinda just let it happen and it's not really any work. I love those moments. Nothing can beat that for me.

With the style of music that I do, I don't think it's at the top of their agenda to push me into doing any compromising material.

Yeah, but Jesus is the most important thing to me and I want to be bold about it.

You know, being able to, in my mind, have a song that you know doesn't really have any loose ends or you know, extra fat in it, so to speak.

And as I got older and played more, people began to forget about my age and took the music more seriously.

But I needed to prove to everyone that I was a serious musician.

Cause I enjoy both, I enjoy recording and playing live, but yeah, the rush of playing live is really something.

I always knew I wanted to be a musician.

I definitely have a firm, fixed idea of what compromise is for me.

I didn't just want to put something out that I wasn't satisfied with.

I don't want to sound arrogant or anything, but I just always knew that my career would be playing music.