Man, if anybody knew the path that we've been on, no one in their right mind would ever try to duplicate it. That's something Nashville always tries to do, though. If something is successful, they try to repeat it by telling other people, "Hey, do what that guy did." I just don't think it works that way. The first one who gest there, the one that cuts the path ... it's always the roughest path but I think it's got the most reward at the end.

The evolution of the music is what allows it to survive.

I'm not a guy who can go in and go, "Hey, are we doing right or wrong?" I just do it. And whatever it is, it is.

Now me and my brother go to see him some times but he don't have much to say anymore. So we sit on his headstone with a fifth of Jack D. Here's to a long line of sinners like me.

I think too many people, if you are 46 you want to look 36, and if you're 36 you want to look 26. I didn't want to do that. I've earned the gray hairs. So I wanted to show that level of honesty.

Music's cyclical. There's always that next generation that always comes along.

I think right now, you've seen these artists pop up over the last decade who've flirted with branching together a lot of different kinds of music. Some of them have been huge, and sold millions of records. And I think over time it's become a little bit of what the industry can be.