Love yourself. Then find something to love beyond yourself.

Grace Potter

Categorized in : Yourself Find Love Love Yourself

I'm from Vermont, where to be stylish and cool is to have a dirty pair of hiking boots and know how to change a tire, hang drywall, and bale hay. Those people are my home, and every time I come home, it reminds me that there's something to be said for being in the spotlight, but it can never be a whole part of me.

cool me change time

The rainy season in Vermont is not long, but it definitely gets gloomy.

definitely season gloomy long

You have to be a part of the conversation if you want to change the conversation.

you change want conversation

I really love what Chuck Berry did with Christmas music, and also the Rat Pack Christmas stuff, which I listened to all through my childhood.

childhood music christmas love

Tearing down an old house and building a new one is the most wasteful thing we do as humans.

down new building house

What I'm wearing changes everything about how the show goes. If I'm wearing blue jeans and flannel, it's going to be a country show, and I'm going to get my twang on. But if I'm wearing a flapper dress, fringe or sequins, I'm rocking out, Tina Turner style.

dress style blue country

I loved the experience of going to the farmers' market, seeing where your food is grown, turning it into something delicious.

loved farmers experience food

Trends suck you in, anywhere in the world, patterns you don't even see. It's so easy. Look at Wall Street - look at any sports team in the world - there are trends. Look at exercising. Nothing but patterns and trends, and that's what I started to see. Like a flock of birds all flying in one direction.

look you sports world

Every single song I write has to feel like it has a beginning, middle, and end, like a movie or a short story.

end feel beginning song

I've been singing since I could talk. I started playing the piano when I was about 5 or 6. I picked up the guitar on my 20th birthday.

talk singing guitar birthday

I see musicians like Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris as more than just musical icons: they are planets, with a gravitational pull - from how they flip their hair just-so when they bow, right down to their hearty backstage banter. It takes decades to learn the innuendos of being gracious and genuine all at once.

musicians down see hair

I always loved the piano because it's just a bunch of buttons. I like to push buttons.

loved push like always

We are definitely a team, from each band member to our management/booking agent. I like to be as involved as possible with business decisions, but at a certain point, it's important to me to step aside and let the professionals do their thing.

step me team business

Set lists are like movies. They need a great beginning, a dynamic shift in the middle, and bang at the end.

movies end beginning great

Spirituality is complicated. I do not belong to any particular religious group, but I have profound respect for people who devote their lives to faith.

group respect faith people

Follow your path unapologetically. Be compassionate.

follow your compassionate path

Think about what makes a band burn out. They get too successful too fast. And then they take it for granted. And they get entitled. And they get picky. We don't ever allow ourselves that possibility.

fast burn think band

For all the flack that we get for becoming successful, you get people who really respect how firmly planted our feet have been in Vermont.

you respect feet people

I hear it all the time: 'What happened to the Grace Potter who didn't used to wear makeup?'

wear makeup grace time

The misconception about the record company is that they were the ones who got me wearing short skirts, or got me to do my hair blond, or got me to dance around onstage and start doing different things with my clothes. No, that was actually all me.

me clothes dance hair