I had gotten up to two, maybe three, packs (of cigarettes) a day. And my lungs were bothering me and I'd had pneumonia two or three times. And I was also smoking pot, and I decided, well, one of them's got to go. And so I took a pack of Chesterfields and took all the Chesterfields out, rolled up 20 big fat ones and put it in there, and I haven't smoked a cigarette since then.

Ninety-nine percent of the world's lovers are not with their first choice. That's what makes the jukebox play.

How would you like to bite that in the ass, develop lock jaw and be dragged to death?

You know why divorces are so expensive? They're worth it.

I have more dumb luck thank anybody I know. There must be a convey of guardian angels working twenty-four hours a day looking after me[...] Like the night I first got to Nashville that I laid down in the middle of Broadway, waiting to get run over. It didn't happen [...] I could swear they were keeping me alive just to see what I'd get next, I'm glad they feel that way. I'm trying to help them a little more this days.

I never gave up on country music because I knew what I was doing was not that bad.

Where I grew up, Bob Wills and his western swing was very popular. And western swing is not that far from jazz and blues.