I did the one concert, and I was not bitten by the conducting bug, and I thought I was done, but then the phone started to ring, and gradually, over time, I started conducting more and more. Now a third of my performances are with orchestras.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

I do a lot of performing, but don't get a chance to go to the studio and write good music.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

I grew up in a time when being a musician and learning to be a musician was actually very wonderful.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

I like a very dark house, just black. I sit there and just think. Once I'm still and quiet inside, I'll begin. It's very personal; it has to be. One song may be Bach, the next blues, a song from TV, or a nursery rhyme or jazz piece.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

I like to use the audience as my color palette, my instrument.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

I played piano as a kid; I still play a little bit.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

I'd actually been making my living as an organist with bands since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, and then as a senior in high school I put together a jazz quintet called The Bobby Mack Jazz Quintet.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

If I can bring joy into the world, if I can get people to stop thinking about their pain for a moment, or the fact the tomorrow morning they're going to get up and tell their boss off... then I'll be successful.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

It's not that I don't love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off to college as soon as possible.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

Miles Davis turned his back to the audience when he came out on stage, and he offended people. But, he wasn't there to entertain; he was all about the music. I kind of do that.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

My father was a very disciplined singer who worked hard at his craft, and I was around that growing up.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

Part of our responsibility as parents, as adults, is to set examples for children. But we have to like children in order to be really happy fulfilled adults.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

Seriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and jazz in the home all the time.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

Then I came up with this crazy idea just to walk out on the stage with no band at all and just start singing whatever came to mind. I actually fought the idea for a while because it seemed almost too radical, but it became obvious what I was supposed to be doing.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

Then when I was in grammar school I played the clarinet, and then, after clarinet I played the flute in college orchestra - besides singing in the college chorus and things like that.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote

Well, I started conducting kind of by accident. I wanted to give myself a special birthday present for my fortieth birthday, and I was living in San Francisco at the time and I started attending some of the concerts and then simply dropping hints.
- Bobby McFerrin Quote