My mom played the recorder. But not having electricity, we had minimal exposure to music. As I got a little older, we had Walkmans and things that were battery-powered, but it would have been nice to be growing up in the iPod era. A tape only has six songs on a side.
I just wasn't cut out to be a Chinese Tiger Mom. I'm more of an Irish Setter Dad.
My mom was a big fan of Al Green... James Brown we weren't allowed to listen to, so of course I knew James Brown.
My parents listened to a lot of James Taylor and Hall and Oates. My mom and I used to listen to Liz Phair and Indigo Girls a lot in the car, too.
When I was young, all the books were about a Mary Jane and the football player and the prom and ending up with the quiet guy and making your mom happy.
I remember my mom dressed like Janis Joplin.
My mom had early rap records, like Jimmy Spicer. In the middle of the records was a turntable and a receiver - I used to scratch records on it - and on top was a reel-to-reel. In front of that wall were more stacks of records. It was either Mom's record or Pop's record, and they had their names on each and every one.
It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding.
Juggling being a mom and an entertainer is a challenge I face every day.
My mom and I have always been really close. She's always been the friend that was always there. There were times when, in middle school and junior high, I didn't have a lot of friends. But my mom was always my friend. Always.
When I first got into the entertainment industry, I would always watch Rihanna and all those people, so I was like, 'Ooh, I have to be this.' So my mom was like, 'Just be yourself.'
My dad was a Punjabi from Amritsar, and my mom is a Punjabi from Kashmir. My dad was a soldier in the Indian Army.
I think like my dad, but I have a huge kinship with my mom.
I would make my mom buy me the toy doctor kit.
Well, when I was a little girl we had 17 cats once. They all lived outside, and they kept having more kittens. My mom made us put little ribbons around each kitten's neck, put them in a wagon, and go door-to-door around the neighborhood to try to give them away.
When I was, like, 4 or 5, I'd just always tell - my mom would ask me what I wanted to be when I got older. And I would just be like, 'I wanna be Kobe.' She'd be like, 'You wanna be in the NBA?' 'No, like, I wanna be Kobe.'
My mom passed away when I was 4 years old, and she came from a very conservative Korean background. I feel like my life would've been incredibly different had she still been alive.
In terms of keeping kosher, I've basically just been vegetarian. I want to be fully vegetarian anyway, though sometimes my mom makes chicken soup and I have to eat it. I just love it.
I saw David Bowie in 'Labyrinth' when I was seven or eight. I told my mom I wanted a Bowie record, so we traveled to the mainland, which was, like, a three-hour trip, and I bought 'Let's Dance' and 'Tonight.' 'Let's Dance' blew my little mind. I became obsessed with it.
I'm black. I'm Latina. My mom is Cuban. Afro-Cuban. My dad is white and Australian.
