Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I have figured out that you never completely figure it out.
I usually work, like, 27 days in a row and then take one off.
I love Twitter. What a great tool to speak directly to people.
For me, it has always been about using my platform to help others.
I'm a decent writer, barely a decent guitar player, and a terrible singer.
I fail at things all the time. I'm always being told no. I just get back up and try again.
Authenticity in any format is important, so I try as hard as I can to stay as real as possible.
I have 50 rejected TV show ideas. I think when I hit 100, then I'll feel like I really started to make it.
I do think that inside of country music now there's a very silent majority, and I represent that silent majority.
I've built a career on the survival skill I honed early on: being a smart aleck who is good with a fast comeback.
Country music listeners really like genuineness, and I hope that's what we portray, and I think that's what we do.
The medical protocol for poor people is, if something hurts, get over it. If something hurts real bad, put salve on it.
I was always the pop guy that was a little too country. I talked a little too country; I brought the country artists in.
A wise man once said, 'Instead of crying, I keep on trying.' And that wise man is me, because I just made that up. I think.
I don't believe in luck. I don't believe in destiny. Instead, I believe that our lives are powered by countless microdecisions.
I'm the best interviewer in the whole format. Except for Howard Stern, I'd put myself against anybody. Because I ask human questions.
I want to be the governor of Arkansas. I'm going to be the governor of Arkansas. I might be president, but I will be the governor of Arkansas.
The first book was a life story that I was hesitant to write anyway because I didn't feel like I had a real life story... It was a surprise hit.
The way I look at it, every day that I'm moving forward is a day I'm not moving backward. Just the fact that I'm in the race at all is a miracle.
My mom got pregnant when she was 15. She dropped out of high school. She died in her forties, but before she died, she went back and finished high school.
That's what the grind is, doing all the little things knowing that something may not come out of it. It probably won't. But the goal is to get a shot at it.
I'm not a guy who looks for signs in the universe to tell him things. I believe that if you search hard enough for the answer you already know, you will find it.
By turning negatives into positives, losing into a journey to winning, I have been able to overcome the odds that were against me into motivation for my success.
I take pride in how I interview people. One of the things people come to our show for most is the interaction I have with the artists; it feels very peer-to-peer.
There are tons of talented people, and they might not even be the most talented, but they're the ones who were so resilient and learned in loss that it was winning by losing.
I've been doing stand-up since I was 19. There have been times I've had to step away because of my schedule, but now I'm able to go out and do theaters and not smoky little bars.
Every time we do anything, Austin's the No. 1 place of all that supports it. Austin is our biggest philanthropic helper, even for things that have nothing to do with Austin or Texas.
If I put a statement about being the best interviewer into the universe, I must now live up to it, or at least be held accountable for it. Either way, I'm going to work that much harder.
At 13, I volunteered at the radio station. My first job was cleaning up when I was 17, and before I really started, they fired people for stealing station equipment, and I was on the air.
As long as everyone is having fun, especially our listeners, that's what counts. I try to put my team in the best spot possible for them to win and to deliver a great show to our listeners.
I think my career has been instances of me trying to figure out ways to get around doing it the right way because I don't think I have the tools to do it the right way. There's a talent to that.
Having grown up a trailer park kid on welfare and food stamps, becoming jaded is impossible, although now I make a good living, which I'm not ashamed of; when you've been poor, it never leaves you.
I have friends that are reps and run labels, but I don't like to get into that world. I just like to pick what I like with my ears and play it for no other reason, not because of the label or the rep.
All I care about - I can either be someone of the industry, or I can be someone of the people. And I chose to be someone of the people at the sake of burning a lot of small bridges within the industry.
I'm from Arkansas, so I didn't even know who Howard Stern was until I was about 18 or 19. I only kind of knew what I had heard about him; then I saw him doing his thing. That's what I really liked about him.
I believe now we're in such a niche-land in media that you have to super-serve your niche rather than try to be everything to everyone, because if you do that, instead of making your group care, nobody cares.
Charlamagne Tha God on 'The Breakfast Club' is, in my opinion, the best personality on the radio right now. We talk weekly. We couldn't be any different format wise, but we have a very similar background and approach.
While I can hold my own with great talents and have an opinion in the face of big personalities, I'm just a regular guy. I've accepted my position in life: that I'm never going to be that cool. And I'm okay with that.
I worked in every format - pop, hip-hop, and alternative. I did a national sports show. When I finally got to decide what I wanted to do, country, to me, is the most authentic. I grew up on country music my whole life.
You can try to make the right decision all the time, but it's better to just make a decision. I have done wrong so many times, but nine times out of 10, I have learned from my failure. Don't wait for something; just go for it.
I have the best people around me. None of them have ever been on the radio. They're all such great people, and I found that I was able to be a better person when I was doing the radio show. It kept me from being a radio person.
I was seeing on the ground floor that labels weren't investing in females, and it trickled upward because I was in radio with none to play. I know that I can't change today, but what I can do is work on the culture for tomorrow.
My grandmother adopted me for a while, and I was bouncing around a bit. I was always helped by the PTA and church groups with food and Christmas presents. It's a hard cycle to break, because when you don't have the resources, it's almost impossible.
Instead of the wacky morning show that sounds canned, my team is sitting over there, waiting for me to say something or ask something. And sometimes the reaction is awesome, and sometimes it's terrible. But they're reacting as humans instead of as DJs.
I felt like it was the space that I could be the most authentic of anywhere because of how I grew up. Even though some of the songs and some of the texture wasn't what I like, I felt like country music was more authentic, in general, than anywhere else.
I grew up in Mountain Pine, Arkansas. You get no more country than where I grew up. But I also grew up in the Napster / iTunes / Spotify/ iHeart Radio era, and so I see that everything is influenced by everything else, and that's what country music is now.
We can all pick a goal and find a reason to do it. Then some of us can actually do all the little things over and over again. That's definitely a harder step. Doing it again? That's where it gets to be a beast, when you have to repeat. It's the hardest part of it all.
I won because I was the people's favorite dancer, and that's what I work with these Idols on. There have been 1,000 singers before you that are as good or better than you, but you're not trying to be the best singer ever. You're trying to be the people's favorite singer.
I think I felt very alone for a lot of my life, but once I was able to share my story more and more, and people wouldn't say, 'Hey, I felt sorry for you,' but, 'I get it, and I understand you,' it kind of encouraged me to tell it more. I just don't want people to feel alone.
I think that I represent people that sometimes don't have a voice because of how they grew up or where they grew up or the options that were given to them. I was able to kick my way out of that, but we have a real class problem in this country, where it's hard to jump classes.