No one church has all the answers or the perfect map to the Promised Land, and I prefer to work out my own faith and my own convictions in the seclusion of my own mind.

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.

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

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 might have become a minor celebrity but royalty checks were a long way off.

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