Three chords and the truth - that's what a country song is.
Keep what you've got till you get what you need, y'all. You gotta give a lot just to get what you need sometimes, y'all.
Whatever you do big or small, do it well or don't do it at all.
When I was a young man, I shined the shoes of Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan! Music was just everywhere like that. And in my family, everyone could play something, and if they couldnt play, they could sing.
My first instrument was the piano; I played in the church, and before that I sang in church. I didnt learn the guitar until I was 24 years old.
I cant lie - I love talking to the people at my shows. Im so grateful to all my fans. I couldnt do it for this long without them. So if they want to come past to say hi and whatnot, then its part of my job to talk to them - and you know, it might be the best part of my job, too.
Faced with a world of "modern ideas" which would like to banish everyone into a corner and a "specialty," a philosopher, if there could be a philosopher these days, would be compelled to establish the greatness of mankind, the idea of "greatness," on the basis of his own particular extensive range and multiplicity, his own totality in the midst of diversity.
And I had not much of a voice. I didn't play that great guitar either.
The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends to be impatient, craves the novel and is bored by repetition.
You do not have to make your children into wonderful people. You just have to remind them that they are wonderful people. If you do this consistently from the day they are born they will believe it easily.