Today they forget you in five years. They give an artist nowadays four or five years and that's it. Some of them don't have that. They get a couple of releases. If you don't sell two million copies, you're gone, you're out of here.

All Patsy Cline had to do was sing somebody else’s song and her version would outsell theirs because it would be so good!

A new artist today has to get their teeth fixed, has to tighten their jeans up, and they have to get 'em the right kind of hat, and if anything's wrong with their nose, if it's a little crooked, it's got to be straightened up.

It didn't make much difference what time of night it was, whenever [my father would] come in drunk, he'd say, "Get up and sing me some songs." We didn't want to sing but we sang.

Everybody knows in the business how I feel about country music. I'm an old traditionalist. Then they just call me an old man and stuck in my old ways, but with all the fans I've got out there, I can't be all that wrong. I do love traditional country music. I love the good stuff.

After the first couple of years recording I did a lot of praying. I said, 'Lord, please give me a hit.' I want one so bad.

I would just like to say thank you to each one of my fans for supporting me all these years and continuing to come to the concerts and buy my music. I owe them everything.