Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I had a beard way before it was fashionable.
I was a car salesman, if you can believe it.
If I have a talent, it lies in the creative process.
I don't think country music needs saving from anything.
I used to spend my money on going to Tom Petty concerts.
I don't look at it as mainstream country versus outsider.
America's military allow the rest of us to do what we do.
As long as people are buying music, it's good for everybody.
I can pass myself off as a 'Duck Dynasty' impersonator a lot.
I can only be me. I have a hard time being a chameleon as a singer.
My dad was a very straight arrow, prayed-at-every-meal kind of guy.
I like all kinds of music. But I would rather people stop caring about lines.
If you think about what everyone else will think, you forget to just make music.
At the end of the day, I just have to do what I do and let it be what it's gonna be.
I want the dude in the top row to feel like he's down there on the front row in a club.
Country music is one of those places where we support each other and prop each other up.
I'm not a hustler. I don't pitch songs. I don't ask people to write with me. It's not what I do.
I like to fish. I collect pocketknives. I inherited a nice collection from my father and grandfather.
I always feel that if you're going to cover a song, you should make it your own and flip it on its head.
I'm always just looking to get back to the joy of playing music, and keeping it simple, as much as I can.
I'm not going to ask musicians to sit there and pretend to play. It feels insulting to the musicians to me.
I was born in Fayette County, over in Lexington, Kentucky, but I was raised most of my life in Paintsville.
I'm not reinventing the wheel here. I'm not Chuck Berry or Bill Monroe. Guys like that are from outer space.
If you go in RCA A, you'll realize that it's not just a Nashville thing. It's a studio that belongs to music.
Great musicians are great musicians, whether they're playing a trombone or an electric guitar or a xylophone.
I just try to make the best music that I can. People are going to label it whatever they're going to label it.
I love music so much, and I love musicians - I love singers. It's fun. That's what music's supposed to be. Fun.
I like the old days when, if I wrote a song and I recorded it, it didn't mean somebody else couldn't record it.
I'm a fan of records. I'm a fan of listening to something cover to cover and not wanting to skip over anything.
For me, the more time you can take and the more care you can take with songs, the better off you're going to be.
I didn't have any expectations with 'Traveller' - I don't think anybody did. That's how I prefer the process to be.
I don't make records to win awards. I make records to make records and hopefully make the records as good as they can be.
I like more of the club mentality, where we're playing, and if we feel like we want to play a cover, we'll switch to that.
I was in a band called the SteelDrivers, and we just played hard in vans, hopping on airplanes, not knowing where you're at.
It's a unique thing, and it's probably the thing I love most about songs and music - their ability to connect in a human way.
My dad could hold a tune. He wasn't necessarily a singer, but he did love music, and he listened to it quite loud in the car.
I like to put something on and want to listen to it again once I get done listening to it, not feel like I need an ear break.
I'm always trying to do as many different things as I can, just so when one is not doing so hot, maybe the other is still there.
It's such a strange marriage, a song and someone that sings it. When that works, it really works, and when it doesn't, it doesn't.
Lyrically, 'less words mean more' is a pretty good rule of thumb. Try to cut out the fat and get to the meat of what you're saying.
Everybody's got a story on their beards. I guess it's just a way of finding common ground with people you otherwise might not know.
There are great songs out there, and if I love them, and I know them, I'm going to sing them just because that's what songs are for.
My wife has great taste in everything but men. The vast majority of the songs on my debut album, 'Traveller,' came from lists she made.
I'm a fan of polarization. If you make something that is palatable to everybody, it's like making vanilla ice cream, and I think we have enough of that.
The curse of being a songwriter is that's you're always at work. I could look out the window right now and see something that would make me want to write.
Anytime that another artist or a critic that is well-respected says something nice about you, you're always thankful and hope that you can live up to that.
I've always believed you should sing songs you can really put yourself into. I think the emotion you put into it is just as important as singing the notes.
Anyone who says it's so easy to write a country hit and that it's just a formula - well, try it sometime. If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it.
I was writing waltzes at a time when the most popular thing was Shania Twain and the very pop edge of country. I didn't really know how to do much of that.
Among my dad's generation, when you gave another man a pocketknife as a gift, it was a show of respect. I'll still give someone the knife out of my pocket.