I realize I was more of a curiosity to the older Nashville artists than the new ones.

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.

After 14 months of military service, I had a wife, a child, half an apartment, no car, and no job.

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

I always wanted to grow up fast. I longed for more than the Mississippi Delta could give.

In 20 years I had sold more records for RCA than any artist except Elvis Presley.