The 91-year-old New York-born record executive Clive Davis has worked with the best of the best. From Patti Smith to Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin to Whitney Houston, Aerosmith to Santana, Davis had a hand in all of their careers.
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So, you might be wondering, what does the wise fellow who has so much experience with so many have to say about his life, his business, the craft of music, his collaborations and more? These are the 25 best Clive Davis quotes.
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1. “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.”
2. “To this day, there’s nobody, nobody that sounds like Janice Joplin.”
3. “I play no instruments.”
4. “You’ve got to seize the opportunity if it is presented to you.”
5. “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.”
6. “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.”
7. “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.”
8. “I did not develop my ear. I discovered I had an ear, and it was an accident.”
9. “If an artist knows you have respect for their talent—which I have to feel to my core, to sign them—they know that you’re in their corner. That doesn’t mean you have to be ‘mum’ on everything; it doesn’t mean you can’t raise your voice.”
10. “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.”
11. “There’s no way that music could ever go down the tubes. I can’t imagine a civilization without music. When you realize today that music is such a part of people’s lives. And will always be, really.”
12. “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.”
13. “You don’t have favorites among your offspring, and you don’t among the artists you’re involved with, but clearly among my most favorite was Patti Smith.”
14. “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.”
15. “I’m the keeper of the flame for Whitney Houston. She was the greatest… and I don’t want the world to forget that.”
16. “Watching artists like Joplin perform, I felt that tingle down my spine; I experienced the wonders of a cultural and musical revolution.”
17. “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.”
18. “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.”
19. “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.”
20. “My years with Aretha Franklin have been very special, as were the years making records with Dionne Warwick. Other highlights include working with Janis Joplin, who was the first artist I ever signed, as well as Patti Smith and Alicia Keys.”
21. “I’m not into one-hit wonders.”
22. “I have total respect for the self-contained rock artist. Whether you’re dealing with Jerry Garcia or Lou Reed or Patti Smith or a Whitney or an Aretha, they know what they want with their career.”
23. “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.”
24. “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.”
25. “I encourage the study of music. And the immersion. ‘Cause my life has been so enriched by being involved in music as I have.”
(Photo by Larry Busacca/WireImage)
