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

It used to be that if you had a pretty good record, you could stop by a station in Little Rock or Atlanta and let the DJ listen to it. No way something like that can happen now.

I finally came to terms with manic depression and lithium. I've taken lithium regularly for the past few years and have had no further bouts with manic depression.

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

I was sometimes jeered by black soldiers who wanted me to sing something besides country music.

A woman went so far as to hire private detectives to contact me to help bring her out of what she called a hypnotic trance.

Even now, when I'm asked how I'm doing, I like to reply, 'Pretty good. I've got all my fingers and both eyes.