Grab a guitar, put some kind of strings on it, a banjo string, then a violin string, then a guitar string, tune it any way you want, and make some noise, and see what you get. And work on it until you get something that you think is interesting. That's all there is to art for me.
There is an exercise I teach at colleges: Get yourself a canvas and a bunch of acrylics and go into a very dimly lighted room. Dip a brush into one of the colors, slap it on the canvas, don't look, close your eyes, make a painting, don't look, turn the lights on and see what you've got. I think this releases people from the editor in their life that's always standing over their shoulder saying, "Oh, you don't have any talent; who do you think you are?"
Take a bunch of little kids to the beach and they all make art. Adults are too stupid to call it art, but it is art. They'll use their imaginations, make drama, make up characters, make pictures in the sand, they'll make up songs that no one's ever heard before. All kids, I think, are creative, but they get it pounded out of them in school.
I sang a song in Hindi; nobody even knew what that was. Singing about Native American issues, nobody did that... I had no reason to want to copy anybody else... All I had was my originality.
People sometimes ask me, because of the blacklisting, "Do you hate the government? Don't you hate white people?" No, it's greed that's the problem.
I feel sorry for people of good heart who have never had a chance to learn the realities of Native American everything - not just our history but the sweetness and the beauty and the reasons why were so close to Mother Earth.
There is so much joy in native culture but so much poverty. It's very disturbing.
Every time somebody makes an Indian movie...Cher on a horse with a headdress and a miniskirt...the fashion industry cashes in.
I didn't know what I was gonna get the first time I sat down at a piano, but I loved it and it became my playmate for life.
Everybody's creative. We create our songs and our paintings, our families and our children. Every one of us is on the cutting edge of the future.
Some of my songs are like dreams, and when you go to sleep at night you don't know if you're gonna have a dream or what you're gonna dream about.
I'm trying to entice people, and sometimes my information is very hard hitting. So I've always wanted to have a soft approach.
I really work hard to shape the song so that it's attractive... You don't want to give people the information in an enema.
All kids, I think, are creative, but they get it pounded out of them in school.
I had no reason to want to copy anybody else. What I wanted to give audiences for the few minutes that I thought my career would last was something unique.
I was playing with sound like I would have played with pots and pans as a kid.
Some people say I was very brave, but I really just didn't know any better. All I had was my originality.
I had a teacher's degree and a degree in Oriental Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts. I thought I was going to India to study but all of a sudden, I had a career in music. It really surprised me.
I always had wished somebody else would sing my songs, but there wasn't anybody who knew them, so I sang them myself and eventually became a better singer and guitar player.
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