“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.”

Highway robbery and white collar crime, and they laugh at the system they beat.

And you’d sure better not be doing it because it’s a way to make a living, ’cause that ain’t always going to be easy. You got to believe it, believe in the music. You got to mean it.

You’ve got to care about the music…You’d better not be doing it for the publicity, the fame or the money.

Don’t you be so nice to me; I fall in love so easily.

You know, in the days when I started, if you had Chet Atkins’ name on your record as a producer and it was on RCA, you could work the road. It didn’t have to be a big hit record, it just had to have that on it.

Was an American archetype, the bad guy with the big heart.

There’s always one more way to do things and that’s your way, and you have a right to try it at least once.

And yet his greatest desire was the simple warmth of love’s fire, cause it’s cold on the dark side of fame.

What I did. I’ve listened to it, and I think it was more a west coast rock thing, you know? But it fit. It was country, but it was my own interpretation of country.

I say, Lord, do right be me, I’m tired of being lonesome, on’ry, and mean.

I ain’t got no reverse. I’ve learned, a little later in life, it works out pretty good to have one every once in a while.

I was king of the mountain for a long time, well, I don’t want that no more.

Lately I’ve heard rumors that the eagle may be lame. Just because I’ve been idle, don’t mean that I’m tame.

This is getting funny, but there ain’t nobody laughing.

He gave us all a mind to think with and to know what’s right or wrong, he is that inner spirit that keeps us strong.

I don’t think there’s anything you can do this way or that way to change anything.

You need a wisecracking buddy standing next to you? That’s the role for me. You got the guys who are knock-down, drag-out handsome. That’s what people want to see. Let that guy be the hero. But there’s always a role for the Everyman.

But Buddy was an upper. He was happy. He loved music, and he was really happy. I don’t know…

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 was very young then. Buddy taught me so much in such a short time.

I was alive, and Buddy and those boys were dead, and I didn’t know how, but somehow I’d caused it.

I have come up at the end of a dive, and the boat was not where I left it. I had to take care of a buddy who did panic. But I was confident the boat would come back.

Like if I go to a movie for example, and I watch a movie, and I wasn’t a fan of it. I don’t mind turning to my family or some buddies