I used to go round to my granddad's house on a Saturday morning, and we'd sit and eat our porridge and watch re-runs of 'Steptoe and Son' on BBC Two. I thought it was hilarious - and Rag 'N' Bone Man sounded like a blues name to me. It reminded me of people like Sonny Boy Williamson and Big Mama Thornton.

Rag'n'Bone Man

More Quotes by Rag'n'Bone Man
Categorized in : Man Me Son Morning
More Quotes From Rag'n'Bone Man

Close to my heart is Muddy Waters. I love the way he sang. It was almost like a bark. It was like the bark of a dog: it's not fancy. Sometimes it's not like singing; it's like shouting.

Rag'n'Bone Man
singing dog heart love

I had some really early recordings when I was 16 or 17. I was rapping over jungle beats with my friends. We used to do pirate radio stations in my area, down near Brighton. They were pretty terrible.

Rag'n'Bone Man
down some jungle friends

I used to sing as a kid, but it was quite squeaky. I think I was about 19 or 20, and we used to go to these jam sessions and open mics. I just got the courage to sing one day. I don't think anyone expected it to sound like that.

Rag'n'Bone Man
day think one-day courage

Hip-hop was the music that actually got me excited about it and the actual prospect of performing. I think I loved music from an early age because my parents wanted me to love it as much as they did. It was constantly there.

Rag'n'Bone Man
me music age love

When you get to your teenage years, you want to find something that you identify with. It's almost a slight rebellion; you don't want to listen to what your parents listen to anymore; you want to find your own music. That, for me, was hearing the Fugees for the first time.

Rag'n'Bone Man
me you music time

The insomnia just perpetuates. I have one bad night, then I get it in my head that I can't sleep. I've been trying these meditation tapes - there are a couple on Spotify - and they're meant to calm you. But they don't seem to work.

Rag'n'Bone Man
you work sleep night

It's a weird thing, beards now. I'll be in east London, and lads come up to me: 'Yo man, what beard oil do you use?' I'm like, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' It's just laziness.

Rag'n'Bone Man
me you man beard

I've got 99 problems, and most of them are height-related.

Rag'n'Bone Man
them got problems most

Me and my dad used to go to these jam sessions and open mic nights, but I was always scared of singing on stage. It felt different to rapping - more pressured.

Rag'n'Bone Man
go me singing dad

My mum always wanted to send me to a music school, but we didn't really have the money. So even now, I'm not a technically good singer. If you asked me to sing a particular harmony, I wouldn't know how.

Rag'n'Bone Man
good me music money

I grew up in a little town called Uckfield, and there's not much to do - so we used to fight a lot. I was never in serious trouble, but we used to have the local bobby round the house saying, 'Rory's been up to this again.'

Rag'n'Bone Man
saying fight never serious

I'm new to a lot of people, and I don't think anyone wants to listen to 16 tracks of a new artist.

Rag'n'Bone Man
new think artist people

People have got no attention span these days with music - I come from the time where I bought the whole album and listened to it back to back.

Rag'n'Bone Man
music time attention people

I like the dirty venues better - Brixton Jams is like home.

Rag'n'Bone Man
better like home dirty

I've been writing a lot more folky, country type stuff. One of the reasons I wanted to write in the first place was because of Darrell Scott.

Rag'n'Bone Man
more place writing country

When I was 15, I wanted to be a jungle MC. Everybody I knew wanted to be Stevie Hyper D or Skibadee or whatever.

Rag'n'Bone Man
whatever everybody jungle hyper

At first, I didn't focus that much on the Internet. I was more, 'I'm going to write songs,' and I'd have sung that song out in a club, pub, or a jam session or whatever 10 times before I recorded it. We live in an Internet age, and if you don't embrace it, you get left behind a bit.

Rag'n'Bone Man
you focus age song

I think there's an attitude these days that you can go straight from a studio to the stage, and it isn't really like that. But playing live was the most important thing for me at the start because whenever I recorded something, it didn't sound right; I didn't like how my voice sounded. It was just raw.

Rag'n'Bone Man
think me you attitude

Nobody told me how to sing, so I just thought I'd try and sing like Howlin' Wolf. It was like a bark; there was melody to it - but I would go off a bit and I wouldn't stick AutoTune on it or anything to make it in key. Even now, I couldn't tell you about harmonies. I couldn't tell about what notes I'm singing because nobody taught me to sing.

Rag'n'Bone Man
nobody me you singing

I don't really like being recognised, to be honest. People say nice things and stuff, but I'm not really in it for that side of things. I just want to play music.

Rag'n'Bone Man
people-say music nice people