Some things I don't want to remember.
I'll tell you, my dad played and sang, and it didn't take me long to figure out that playing a guitar was a whole lot better than getting ahold of a hoe handle or chopping cotton, man.
All my records - 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix,' 'Wichita Lineman,' 'Galveston,' 'Rhinestone Cowboy,' 'Dreams of the Everyday Housewife' - they all had strings on them.
I don't really classify 'Wichita Lineman' as country.
Great stories start with great opening lines. 'I'm a lineman for the county' - what a great way to start a song.
If I get a song - a good song - I just sing it the way I hear it in my head. If anybody else wanted to add whistles and bells and chains rattling, that's fine. Just not too much. I actually just do things as straight ahead as possible.
I can think of only two or three songs out of hundreds I've recorded that I performed as originally written. I like to become intimate with the material and change it to suit me.
You don't mess with politics and religion. Leave it alone. People get upset at that sometimes.
I like to start the day early, it keeps me out of trouble.
If we grew it, we ate it. If Daddy shot it, Mamma cooked it.
We lived on the farm, and our mode of transportation was wagon and team. No electricity. I'm the seventh son of 12 kids - eight boys and four girls. Mom and Dad handled that very well. But I wanted to get out.
It was Dec. 22, 1981. I figured I had messed up enough, and I decided to have a little faith and let God take over. It definitely straightened my act up in a hurry.
I'm an avid golfer.
Music is music. It doesn't matter if I am trying to aim at country or trying to aim at pop.
I felt my music wasn't aiming at anybody. Everything I was doing was because it was a good song.
TV is just an incredible media.
Hank Williams' music - it just doesn't go away, for some reason.
God only knows just how much I'm going to do, or not going to do.
I listened to a battery radio, old country and pop stuff. Because I was singing all the time, my dad bought me a $7.50 guitar.
I still love making music. And I still love performing for my fans. I'd like to thank them for sticking with me through thick and thin.
