All I cared about was the music, like hearing Townes [ Van Zandt] talking about "For the sake of the song"; it's all that mattered. In spite of me a couple of things happened, mainly the Eagles and Seven Bridges Road. That certainly helped me survive. Joan Baez, Rita Coolidge, and Ian Matthews did it.

My playing style is very eccentric and mostly self taught.

No one can keep their word. Everyone's in hurry and jumping to the next opportunity. There's something missing.

I didn't have the self-promotion instinct, and I just didn't care about it. I sort of had a "beat" attitude.

I'm playing a D-28 Martin that I've had about 20 years or so. I've got a '51 Martin and I thought I shouldn't be taking this on the road. So I went down to Gruhn Guitars in Nashville and kind of traded around and ended up with this one. This guitar sounded pretty good as new guitar.

I was a young folk singer, or wanted to be. I really wanted to be a New England folk singer, but they never would accept me. I was always hard to categorize, and people wouldn't know what to make of it.

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?