There are worse things than being thought a Republican.

It isn't reasonable to expect that everyone in the world is a country music fan. Not yet, anyway.

A fan will grab you and hug you and will not let go. When that happens, you wish it could be that way all over the world.

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.

No one had ever told me that whites were supposed to sing one kind of music and blacks another - I sang what I liked in the only voice I had.

People pay attention to lyrics, and the race matter was delicate.

It was unlikely that anyone had ever heard a black person sing country music.