I ain't as good as I once was, But I'm as good once as I ever was.

I don't give a bleep if gays get married. That's just a contract, and that's between them and God. That ain't up to me to play God on that.

My first gig, I was about 17 or 18. But I'd been singing a long time. I got a guitar when I was 8, and started trying to write songs as a teenager.

I catch as much hell from the hard-core conservative people as I do the far left. The only difference is that the far right don't bring the hate to the table that the far left does. And that's my party. They just deal in so much hate. I mean the far left, not the Democrats, the far left really deal in hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.

A sucker punch came flying from somewhere in the back. As soon as we can see clearly with our big black eye, we're going to light up your world like the fourth of July.

You've got my heart in unfamiliar territory. It's never been out here on my sleeve. But here tonight with you it's quite a different story. You bring out a side of me no one has ever seen.

I get more respect from rap artists than I do from my own industry. I don't always write the kind of music that country executives want. Rappers are like that too .. my words come from the street, and their words come from the street. That slicked-up pop stuff doesn't come from the street, it's all pre-fab.