I couldn't care less about politically correct.

Little Jimmy Dickens has long been a musical hero of mine and one of the finest entertainers to ever step on any stage. I was deeply honored to call him a friend and will always remember the time I got to spend with him. The music world has lost one of our greatest treasures. Rest in peace, my little friend. You were loved by so many of us!

I can't imagine not having a reason to get out of bed at night.

I've been to Iraq three times. I've been to Afghanistan, I've been quite a few places, and I want to tell you something, these kids, they're the best we've got. They're the best Americans, they're the most loyal Americans we've got. And we owe them when they come back.

I don't want to go anywhere where Jesus can't go.

Well, I just can't play the game anymore. I'm 63 years old, and I've been in the business for 40 years now. I take good advice and direction really well, but I don't need somebody that finished college two years ago to come in and tell me what I should be recording.

Make sure to be honest with yourself, about if that's really what you want to do with your life - to make music. It takes a commitment - a tremendous, thick-skinned commitment of being the first one to get there and the last one to leave, doing what you want to do even if you have to work twice as hard as anybody else ever did.