Until MTV, television had not been a huge influence on music. To compete with MTV, the country music moguls felt they had to appeal to the same young audience and do it the way MTV did.

How often does a guy who lives and breathes baseball meet a woman who loves the game and understands it as well as he?

I grew up not liking my father very much. I never saw him cry. But he must have. Everybody cries.

The time I spent thinking about how I was better than somebody else or worrying about somebody else's attitude was time I could put to better use.

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.

Performing is an experience, for me, that is as humbling as it is energizing.

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