If Detroit was a watershed concert for me, traveling with Willie Nelson through Texas and Louisiana was a milestone of a different sort.

I learned to tune a guitar by ear. That method has served me pretty well.

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.

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.

There were no guarantees that country music, whose roots were in the South, were ready for Charley Pride.

A lot of celebrities relish politics and are eager to lend their names to candidates and causes. I never wanted to be a spokesman for anybody.

My brothers and sisters all sang, too, and they all have good voices.