“Blues was my first love. It was the first thing where I said, ‘Oh man, this is the stuff.’ It just sounded so raw and honest, gut-bucket honest. From then I started rebelling.”

The guitar is your first wings. It’s assigned and designed to unfold your vision and imagination.

When you are in your heart of hearts, you can see beyond appearances.

There is divinity in your DNA. Live your light.

I realised a long time ago that instrumental music speaks a lot more clearly than English, Spanish, Yiddish, Swahili, any other language. Pure melody goes outside time.

I knuckle down with my demons, and with my weaknesses.

Live up to your convictions. You walk in grace or you walk in fear. You can’t have it both ways.

The Devil is like a strainer that separates the mud from the gold.

I would invite all Latin people to do nothing for about two weeks so you can see who really, really is running the economy I am here to give voice to the invisible.

Your mind is a magnet. You don’t attract what you need or what you want; you attract who you are. And I love who I am!

There is no person that love cannot heal; there is no soul that love cannot save.

First of all, the music that people call Latin or Spanish is really African. So Black people need to get the credit for that.

There is nothing more contagious on this planet than enthusiasm.

The best part of touring, still, is touching people’s hearts and igniting my band and igniting the people into what you call a spiritual revelation is sound and emotion.

Everything is a battlefield. If you fight with anger, you are part of the problem. If you fight with joy, you’re part of the solution.

Most people are prisoners, thinking only about the future or living in the past. They are not in the present, and the present is where everything begins.

Some songs are just like tattoos for your brain… you hear them and they’re affixed to you.

People have this misconception that I’m going to beat them up when I meet them. But it’s like… no. Just ’cause I stand up for myself, and I’m honest, that doesn’t mean I’m going to beat people up all the time.

The key to success is to be honest, follow your passion and not someone else’s path.

I honestly hate wearing makeup.

I like friends who are honest and loyal. They also shouldn’t be afraid to be a kid. I like having fun.

My music is some of the most honest music that’s been released and I think that’s why people buy it.

To be honest, I think about the clubs when I write. But I should probably start thinking about stadiums, because the songs sound even better there – and bigger.

I’m either about to fail miserably or I’m about to have a huge break through and to be honest that’s my sweet spot or something.

I started singing before I started talking. And that’s the God’s honest truth. I think it was something that I’ve always loved to do, even if I wasn’t good at it. I just loved ballads.