When I was a baby, my mama told me son, always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns. But I shot a man in Reno.

Gospel music was the thing that inspired me as a child growing up on a cotton farm, where work was drudgery and it was so hard that when I was in the field I sang all the time. Usually gospel songs because they lifted me up above that black dirt.

I'm thankful for the sea breeze that feels so good right now, and the scent of jasmine when the sun starts going down.

My way of communicating with God as a boy (and often even now) was through the lyrics of a song. . . . So I didn't have the problem some people do who say, "I don't know how to pray." I used the songs to communicate with God. . . . To me, songs were the telephone to heaven, and I tied up the line quite a bit.

When my wife died, I booked myself into the studio just to work, to occupy myself.

When I was 17 - 16, my father and I cut wood all day long and I was swinging that crosscut saw and hauling wood.

I could wrap myself in the warm cocoon of a song and go anywhere.