I've always written about things that cause me to feel something.

I was mainly influenced by the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, and others like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash.

If something bothers me, it bothers me for a long time until I find a way to work it out. Music provided me with a means of working things out.

This is how it has been since time began: If you want to make something really worthwhile and true, then you have to suffer for it.

And I've been walking 'round with memories way too long.

For a long time I was interested in being a social worker. In a lot of ways I feel that that's all my music is, trying to help people.

Turn off the TV and start digging around for information that's not from a corporation trying to make money.