Love Quote by Michael Bolton

Bolton’s line is a tidy map of how a so-called “voice guy” wants to be understood in a pop culture that loves to typecast. For decades he’s been treated as the avatar of big-throated adult contemporary: the hair, the power notes, the ballads that arrive like weather. By putting songwriting just behind singing, he’s quietly resisting the idea that he’s merely an instrument for other people’s material. It’s a reclaiming move: don’t reduce me to pipes; I build the songs that justify the pipes.

The phrasing matters. “Second to” concedes hierarchy without conceding insignificance, a diplomatic way to honor the visceral thrill of performance while still insisting on authorship. Then he pivots to “how I express myself,” which frames both acts as forms of self-disclosure, not career mechanics. That’s the subtext: songwriting isn’t just craft, it’s autobiography with better lighting. Singing is the immediate emotional delivery system; songwriting is the slower, more controlled way to say the same things with structure, metaphor, and a chorus that can carry what plain speech can’t.

In context, it also reads like brand maintenance in an era that prizes “authenticity” and singer-songwriters. Bolton came up in an industry where vocalists were often separated from writers; the quote bridges that old division. He’s telling listeners: the sincerity you hear isn’t only performance. It’s intention, built into the blueprint.