Dad Quotes

Music is something I couldn't live without. My dad was into music, he played for pleasure - guitar, piano. I started off doing jazz, singing with a lot of fabulous musicians here in London before I went to the States. And I still take piano lessons every Wednesday.

My dad was an auto mechanic, but we moved to Fort Worth, where he worked in defense, building B-24s.

There is not a racist bone in my dad's body. He doesn't even laugh at distasteful jokes.

My dad was born in Haiti, and my mom was born in Tunisia. She is the daughter of a white French woman and a black, half-Guadeloupian, half-American man. My mom traveled the world a lot. She went through Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. She just got to experience a lot of different cultures, and that came through my childhood.

Growing up with a dad who was a classic-rock guy, I felt out of place with what was happening in pop culture. The Beatles, Zeppelin, T. Rex - that, for me, was the music that could never leave our vocabulary.

Elvis was a seventh-degree black belt in karate. My dad knew that he couldn't dance like Elvis or sing like him, but he thought maybe he could try karate, and he fell in love with it.

My dad is from Japanese descent, my mom is from Swedish descent and, through marriages and divorces, a pretty multicultural family - a lot of Spanish speakers in the family.

My dad was a professional basketball player, and my mom was a hell of a tennis player.

After you've watched your dad beat the crap out of Charlie King or some other bad guy in about forty movies, you pretty much always said, 'Yes, sir,' and meant it.

One day, I brought home Eddie Murphy's 'Raw', and Dad and I would watch that together.

My dad was an engineer and so I had this picture of science and technology and pursuits of the mind as being more impressive than artistic pursuits, which I saw a as kind of frivolous.

I remember going to see '2001' with my dad.

'Dirt On My Boots' is a very different song. I heard the melody, and I heard the lyrics, and I heard the drive of that song. I totally related. It was kinda me when I was on my bulldozer working for my dad.

My mom and dad never really had friends, never went on vacations. We stayed home. And I see a similarity there: A general anxiety runs pretty deep.

Being a pastor's kid comes with a lot of pressure and scrutiny. A lot of my dad's sermons were about respect. It was a beautiful way to be taught about love and two people being equal.

My mom liked to have us travel in first class with her. She's like, 'I work for my money, and I want my kids to live a certain kind of way.' My dad used to get so mad at my mom for flying us first class. So it was a clash on that.

Me and my dad, all we talk about is football. I do realize, for whatever our issues are and whatever repressions there may be, talking about football is how we communicate. He'll call me up and say 'This is what happened at the football.' But what he's also saying is 'I love you.'

My dad was a Muslim and would pray five times a day. I would pray with him as much as I could, in the morning before school. Sometimes he would tell us moralistic tales about genies, magic carpets and wondrous lands. My mother is not religious - she's just English.

I grew up in a few houses because my dad was a builder, so we used to build and sell quite a lot.

It's an exciting feeling going to Puerto Rico. To go back where my dad was born, my bloodline, it means a lot to me to reach out to my fans in Puerto Rico.