You can't knock on opportunity's door and not be ready.
Bruno Mars
Music is not math. It's science. You keep mixing the stuff up until it blows up on you, or it becomes this incredible potion.
When it's your time, it is your time.
What I like about Elvis is the same thing I like about James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince. These guys, back in the day, there was no smoke and mirrors. It was just raw talent. They would step out onstage and command an audience. Talk about awesome.
I don't throw lavish parties or nothing like that - I just want a bed and a TV.
I can't even speak Hawaiian, but if you go there and listen to a Hawaiian song, you get captured because it's so beautiful, like the melody is just gorgeous and you know Bob Marley is on the radio every single day. It's very reggae-influenced down there. Basically, you haven't been to paradise if you haven't been to Hawaii.
Hawaii is paradise. It sounds cheesy to say it, but there's music in the air there.
I've learned people are watching, so don't do nothing stupid.
Someone told me something that stuck with me: 'You have to envision your life, and then go backwards.' I've been living by that motto for a while, so I see where I need to be. Now I'm just backtracking and trying to get back up there.
I think that success is having fun.
I definitely don't plead guilty to being a heartthrob.
There's always a bittersweet kind of thing, but I feel like everything had to work out the way it is. Everything that had to happen, happened.
In pop music, the public usually see the results - the hit records, the Grammy Awards performances, the concert tours - but not all the work that goes into getting into the spotlight. And not everyone realizes that, even if you have a lot of talent, chances are you won't make it.
If I was a billionaire, I'd be smart with my money.
I feel, as a songwriter, it's one of the hardest things to do - to sit down and say how you feel.
Everyone calls me Bruno; they don't ever call me Peter - that was just my government name.
It's probably the worst feeling in the world, when you're deeply and madly in love with a woman and you know she's not feeling you the same way, and you don't know why.
You pick up some fans and a handful of haters along the way.
I think I don't take myself too seriously. You know as far as, it's a fun life. I take my music serious, but I like to have fun.
Honolulu is a melting pot.
No one sells a song better than the person that wrote it.
I don't ever want to come out with something safe and get away with, 'It sounds good!' It's got to be more than sounding good. The music I like are events.
Writing for other artists helped me figure out that magic you have to capture to make everyone connect with a song.
You know, my sister sings, my brother plays drums in my band. My whole family is a bunch of musicians.
In my songs, I'm not saying something that's never been said before. The have lyrics aren't going to blow people away. It's the emotion and the melody that drive it home.
I just know that I'm a fan of all different kinds of genres. You're supposed to be free doing music, and that's how I feel.
'Doo-wop' is a very special word for me. Because I grew up listening to my dad who, as a Fifties rock & roll head, loved doo-wop music.
I grew up listening to the Police, I grew up performing in bars, singing Police songs.
I signed up to be a musician, I want to perform, I want to sing.
Don't you love it that Prince doesn't use Twitter? Don't you think he's somewhere on a unicorn?
I'm a big fan of songs like Joe Cocker's 'You Are So Beautiful' and Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight' - songs that go straight to the point.
I wish I could tell you me and my rock band were traveling around, strung out. No, we were a family band. Straight Partridge Family.
I'm the Nickelodeon version of DangerMouse.
I feel it's my job to continue being a student of music if I want to continue being an artist and a producer of other artists. You have to keep filling your mind with other music. You have to be ahead of the curve.
Today, I'd like to talk to Bob Marley. I'd just like to ask him what was his method. Bob is one of the greatest songwriters ever. I don't know if people understand how powerful his songs are and the simplicity and genius behind them, from 'Redemption Song' to 'Is This Love?' and 'I Shot the Sheriff.'
I love the Sex Pistols. I'm a big Beach Boys fan and a huge Zeppelin and Queen fan.
In Hawaii, some of the biggest radio stations are reggae. The local bands are heavily influenced by Bob Marley.
Becoming famous was never what I wanted to do. There's a lot of things that come with fame - it's what people in the limelight have to do.
My father moved to Hawaii from Brooklyn and my mother came there as a child from the Philippines. They met at a show where my dad was playing percussion. My mom was a hula dancer.
I love that I can talk to my fans through Twitter, to cut out the middle man. Because I've done interviews where my words have gotten twisted, so it's nice to be able to have things coming straight from me.
I tend to overthink things. I'm not the guy who screams 'This is a world smash!' when I finish a song.
I don't try and be dark, but there are obviously darker emotions that I want to capture sometimes.
'Nothin' on You' by B.o.B was the first song where I heard myself on the radio. I'd been trying my whole career to write a song like that, which incorporates live instruments with hip-hop and singing.
I don't like two stories. I like one story. I never grew up with stairs. I like to stick to what I know.
Doo-wop is special music to me because it's so straightforward and melody-driven and captures emotions.
I've had big record label presidents look me in the face and say, 'Your music sucks, you don't know who you are, your music is all over the place, and we don't know how to market this stuff. Pick a lane and come back to us.'
I could sing you a thousand and one doo-wop songs. I love the simplicity in that music. It's not super-poetic, it's just from the heart.
There are no record companies in Waikiki.
You know, I just do whatever feels right to me! And so that's what you're gonna get!
You know, when Michael Jackson does the moonwalk, he's showing off! When Prince or Hendrix do a guitar solo, it's confidence! I would hate to be at a show and some nervous wreck is sweating up there and doesn't feel like he deserves to be there.
