A fan will grab you and hug you and will not let go. When that happens, you wish it could be that way all over the world.

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.

A black man singing about a blond girl was potential trouble.

Johnny Duncan was one of the first opening acts I hired for my show, and he is the one who initiated me into astrology. I got hooked. It made a lot of sense to me.

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

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.

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.