Country sure has changed in the last 10 years. It was one thing, then it was another. Country has slowly marched toward a rock beat and rock preservation. Country artists of today. Man! That's how I used to sound in the '80s.

The simple man, baby, pays for the thrills, the bills, and the pills that kill.

You shouldn't even be in a band if you can't play Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away.

You can't tell your best buddy that you love him.

Growing up leads to growing old and then to dying And dying to me don't sound like all that much fun

We could walk 3 minutes and be on the beach. I think the music kind of suffered because of it. It kind of smelled like Jimmy Buffett, which is a bad thing.

If fans are going to turn on me because of this, they weren't my fans anyway. I couldn't betray a whole 25 years of record making and not do this. I had to.