Baseball got into my blood early and I worked harder at it than anything.

Singing as a full-time job was not something I had given a lot of thought to and I had no clear notion of the money to be made in it.

Early in my career I began receiving letters from a woman in the Midwest who claimed to be my mother.

The tastes of country music fans are not limited to the narrow range defined by consultants and programmers and record company moguls.

I loved Mississippi and do to this day. The rainbows that stretch from horizon to horizon after a summer rain are the most spectacular I have ever seen.

I realize I was more of a curiosity to the older Nashville artists than the new ones.

What we don't need in country music is divisiveness, public criticism of each other, and some arbitrary judgement of what belongs and what doesn't.