Queen and Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and Guns N' Roses - I had a huge rock-band mania. I play a little bit of drums.
I was not familiar with the Internet thing. Honestly, you know with all kinds of Internet media, I was not that familiar. I was not that kind of guy. Accidentally, 'Gangnam Style' happened, and you have YouTube and all other sorts of stuff like Facebook and Twitter and so on. So after that, I learned and learned.
My lifetime role model and hero is Freddie Mercury of Queen.
My lifetime role model and hero is Freddie Mercury of Queen. His songwriting skills, I cannot even approach, but his showmanship, I learned it from videos.
Gangnam is a territory in Seoul, Korea. I describe it as noble at the daytime and going crazy at the night time. I compare ladies to the territory. So - noble at the daytime, going crazy at the night time - and the lyric says I am the right guy for the lady who is like that.
Before 'Gangnam Style' I was not a good attitude artist.
Thanks to many great K-pop singers, the groundwork has been laid for more Korean songs to be readily accessible to an overseas audience via channels like YouTube.
I've got to wear sunglasses everywhere, all the time, even if its indoors or at night time, to be recognized. That's part of my job. I cannot take off my sunglasses. For me, staying in the United States was so dark because I can't take them off.
I never expect I would become a K-pop star.
When I signed with Scooter Braun and I decided to go overseas to promote my song, the only concern was how should I communicate with the public and the audience with my language. Scooter and I talked a lot about that: should we translate or not? Finally we didn't, and I think that was a really good decision.
I understand the sacrifices American servicemen and women have made to protect freedom and democracy in my country and around the world.
Unexpectedly, I'm here now, so I need to let all the U.S. marketers know that Asians are not different. We are all the same.
