Wyclef Jean believes music saved his life.
The ‘Gone Till November’ singer – who moved from his native Haiti to Brooklyn, New York, when he was 13 – found his favourite songs gave him a "refuge" and allowed him to retreat from scary situations when he was growing up.
He said: "Music can save your life. Literally.
"When I first started to play music it saved my life. When you’re in these communities as a teenager, music gave me a refuge.
"I was finding myself through poetry, through sounds and that distracted me from being on the block.
"At times when a shooting was going on, I missed it by 15 minutes because I’d decided to practise this Jimi Hendrix solo."
For Wyclef, when it comes to making music, he always strives to create a "cultural phenomenon".
He told Q magazine: "When I do music, I’ll be like, ‘In 10,000 years will people still like this song?’ People say, ‘What’s bigger than a hit?’ I say, ‘A cultural phenomenon’. When you create that, it don’t have no colour, it don’t have no creed, no nothing. Everyone in the country is just singing it."
And the former Fugees star insists money isn’t important.
He said: "Money isn’t everything. What’s the value of life? Is it billions of dollars?
"You can have someone who is working a nine to five job, they come home, they’re happy as hell. The true essence of life is family and friends."
Wyclef Jean’s life saved by music
