Quotes
Favorite musician: “George Winston“. Favorite Band: “U2, Smiths, REM, Alarm“. Favorite song: “Sooner or Later by The English Beat“. – Handwritten statsheet 1987.
When the coffee is served, he pops a Dire Straits CD- from a loose pile that includes the Platters, Ray Charles and Led Zeppelin – into a CD ghetto blaster sitting on a shelf by the kitchen table. – The Face 1992
He gets up, pulls out the “Passion Sources” CD and pops it into his ghetto blaster. The kitchen is soon everberating with eeri Arabic wailing. After a few minutes he replaces it with something more conductive to conversation, the Neville Brothers “Yellow Moon”. – The Face 1992
He asks what I have in my bag, and plumps for the new Lemonheads album. Brad Pitt likes his music—while he is not one for huge method research on the characters he plays, he does like to prepare himself by playing appropriate music before certain scenes. ‘That,’ he says, ‘is what works best for me.’ For bits of Interview With The Vampire he explains that Mazzy Star and The Doors have been useful, and also some Blind Melon and Smashing Pumpkins. On Legends Of The Fall, Stevie Ray Vaughn was good. Kalifornia? ‘That was more heavy metal,’ he chuckles. – Empire 1994
He’s brought up some CDs-Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Cracker, Gipsy Kings-which the player occasionally rejects. – Premiere 1994
Pitt walks inside the to the stereo, replaces a Gipsy Kings CD with a Stone Temple Pilots one and settles onto one of his antique chairs. – Rolling Stone 1994
Heard Elton John’s song “Daniel,” bought the Captain Fantastic album. Monumental for him. Then the Who’s Tommy. “I had to save up double, ‘cause it was a double album.” – Vanity Fair 1995
He gets up to sift through his CD collection (Bob Marley, Shawn Colvin, Dave Matthews Band…). – Rolling Stone 1997
He puts on another CD – Soundgarden (“Greatest band in rock & roll right now”). For the moment, he is tired of talking about himself, so he cranks up “Burden in My Hand” and proceeds to rock out. – Rolling Stone 1997
First concert? “The Doobie Brothers, with Foreigner opening.” – Rolling Stone 1997
A soft yellow light shines from the trailer’s windows, and the faint, wispy harmonies of a Shawn Colvin CD can just barely be heard. – Rolling Stone 1997
Except for the distant hum of Soundgarden or Fiona Apple, it’s a serene spot – which befits Pitt’s mood on this Saturday afternoon in early fall. – Interview 1997
“I went to a Fishbone concert, and there was Cusack!” – W 1999
On this road trip, Pitt and Aniston have been listening to Everlast and Lenny Kravitz, and dipping their toes into Cornershop. – Rolling Stone 1999
Like Radiohead. [During the filming (Fight Club), Pitt listened to plenty of his current favorite group, Radiohead. Particularly their third album, OK Computer, which he considered to have many parallels with fight club.] “What is so important about Radiohead is that they are the Kafka and the Beckett of our generation. Thom Yorke and the rest of Radiohead are precisely that. What comes out in them I don’t think is anything they could actually articulate, but I would certainly say that it’s that which we all know is true somewhere when we’re in our deepest sleep. That is their importance, and this movie hits on the same level.” – Rolling Stone 1999
“Ya gotta have that,” he insists, buying me “Euphoria Morning,” by a former Soundgarden frontman, Chris Cornell. We move to the next aisle and I point out some things I think he should hear and he buys them, too: “Mos Def,” “OK.” “Richard Ashcroft.” Back in the car, flicking through our CDs, he selects David Holmes, who will score Ocean’s Eleven. – Esquire 2000
“Why do all trailers look like they come from the same family?” Pitt wonders as Tom Waits croaks from the stereo. – Details 2001
What’s in your CD player right now? “Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, the Foo Fighters. And I’m a big Chris Cornell fan. … and I like Wilco a lot.” – Teen People 2003
Probably the last pop-cultural juggernaut he was onto was 50 Cent. “I was there for Fitty,” Pitt says, mock-proudly. “I was like, ‘Ooh, that’s good, that’s badass.’ ” And he still makes the occasional discovery on KCRW—most recently the post-post-punk band Moving Units. But to a degree, the thrill is gone. – GQ 2005
“Jack White And The Raconteurs Jack White is something special.” – Esquire 2006
As his friend Spike Jonze, the filmmaker, recalls, sometimes Pitt makes music too: “The other day he came over obsessing over the song ‘Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)’ that Arcade Fire released two days earlier, and we sat and listened to it and played guitar and sang along to it a dozen times just to get to experience it inside out. I could feel the song spilling out of him.” – GQ 2022