“I like to perform every once in a while for people who want to see me, and cut albums of music that is what I’m really about.”

They got me for possession of something that was long, long gone.

Country music isn’t a guitar, it isn’t a banjo, it isn’t a melody, it isn’t a lyric. It’s a feeling.

When I look at you girl, I see a true work of art. So many beautiful things coming in one little heart.

When you’re down in Texas, Bob Wills is still the king.

The men who could not fight, in a war that didn’t seem right. You let them come home, America.

Is your head up your ass so far that you can’t pull it out?

The rock and roll spirit. I learned a lot of that because I worked with Buddy Holly. I played bass with him, and he taught me a lot about that.

I love Johnny Cash, and I respect Johnny Cash. He’s the biggest. He’s like an Elvis in this business, but no, he’s never been the rebel.

Mainly what I learned from Buddy… was an attitude. He loved music, and he taught me that it shouldn’t have any barriers to it.

I’ve always felt that blues, rock ‘n’ roll and country are just about a beat apart.

Cuz I was never pretty anyway and never cared anything about that.

It was all devastating. I’d never dealt with losing anyone close to me, and I didn’t know where to put it in my life.

His looking at it from over there and it not being a part of his history made it so he could be objective.

Heroes put to the test, keeping a promise, doing their best.

The Hank Williams Syndrome: Come to Nashville, write some good songs, cut some hit records, make money, take all the drugs you can and drink all you can, become a wild man and all of a sudden die.

So I’m not very popular here with those inside the system, as you might guess. I never wanted to be.

A good producer brings out the best in the artist he’s working with. You shouldn’t be able to listen to something and say, ‘So-and-so produced this album.

I always felt if we were going in to do an album, there should already be a lot of structure already made up so we could get on with that and see what else happened.

Everything that came later… the roots are all there in the first album.

I want to sell out arenas and make an album and work with some of the best artists in the world.

If I have a collection of songs for an EP or mixtape, I create the narrative afterwards; but usually with an album, I have a concept and the name first.

I’ve always felt like I was observing everything, like I’m just looking out of the window, peeping how everybody is living and just penning about it, so I made the album about that concept.

There’s always pressure on the second album – this one has to be the big one.

I would definitely want a hit record, but I still want the success to be around the album. Only the music can help me.