I notice guys playing the piano playing a part up here and a part down there, and I wandered why couldn't I do that on the guitar?

I always had a hard time with Nashville. I reluctantly live there. I've mellowed, and it's improved some, in the fact it has more immigrants. There's some real Mexicans there, some folks from India, some of this and that. I'm not satisfied at all with living there. It's a dilemma for me.

I've refined it since [ was living in Beaumont, Texas], but I was just obsessed with the guitar. I remember one day sitting in class and it just came to me how the neck worked. I was enlightened to the scales, and the runs. I just saw it and thought; now I understand it!

The principle is competing against yourself.

I'd rather work with guys that have time to live with you, and let it gel.

Gibson ES 125 was a real instrument, this was in 1956. I started learning; I had a vision of a sound.

I may yet move [from Nashville], and where would I move if not Texas or New Mexico? I couldn't afford a home in California. I need to travel out of there occasionally.