Of emotions, of love, of breakup, of love and hate and death and dying, mama, apple pie, and the whole thing. It covers a lot of territory, country music does.
Guys like me and Ray Charles, when we was coming up through our days, country music and soul music was just a very thin line between the two.
I knew what I wanted to be, but I didn't know exactly how to get there. I thought you move to Nashville, you sing downtown, and someone discovers you, and you become a country music star. I had no idea.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'.
Country music is the people's music. It just speaks about real life and about truth and it tells things how they really are.
What I loved about country music when I was a kid was the Grand Ole Opry, was 'Hee Haw,' was 360 degrees of entertainment.
If you talk bad about country music, it's like saying bad things about my momma. Them's fightin' words.
I want to reach the point where people hear my name and immediately think of real country music.
You gotta 'be' country music - you can't just sing it.
My definition of country music is really pretty simple. It's when someone sings about their life and what they know, from an authentic place.