Hank Williams Jr. Quotes

That's why I fell in love with country music: it made me feel something.

Writing songs is about trying to connect with people on a deeper spiritual level - but I'm not a fan of contemporary Christian music.

Country music busts the wall between performer and audience. There's a connection because there's a vulnerability, a confessional quality, to so much of the songwriting. Those lyrics take you in.

I draw inspiration from anything and everybody and that's what country music is to me... real life stories and real life emotions.

A lot of political music to me can be rather pedantic and corny, and when it's done right - like Bruce Springsteen or Jackson Browne or great satire from Randy Newman, there's nothing better.

There's certain songs that you're gonna record that you hope to touch people and change lives, and there's certain songs that you know that are not going to be that serious.

A Hank Cochran song in the studio is spiritual. It's like singing a hymn in a church.

A good country song takes a page out of somebody's life and puts it to music.

As a songwriter, if you can touch people and make them feel a little less alone in the world, then you've done your job.

I didn't know what to expect when we first started touring behind 'Southeastern' because you don't want to lull anybody to sleep or lose their attention. But it's really been incredible how the crowds seem to be just as excited for the slow, sad songs as they are for the old rockers.

That's why we do this. In country music, we do this for this very reason... to impact people lyrically, to be a part of their lives.

I would write songs, inspired by my baby, but then I could tell that my baby was also responding to the music. It was just kind of an amazing musical experience.

Every record from New Found Glory is a little different. We're a real band that writes songs about our everyday relationships - like, our personal war, not war and government or politics.

I believe that 'Feel Special' is the story of Twice, written in a song. I guess that is why our fans related to it the most, because it is a very sincere song.

I've always wanted to make some kind of music that was universally appreciated.

And that's the case with all of James McMurtry's songs. He never presents these characters for us to judge, but only to sympathize with. He has a capacity for compassion with every sketch that he makes with a person that he is not.

When I first got into country, I was trying to do the traditional country thing, and I still have a heart for traditional country. But the songs I was writing just weren't falling into that category.

People want things that address their everyday reality, and that goes for stuff that isn't political - with singer-songwriter music, people want things that touch them.

I respect country music because I feel like it's more about the talent and the songwriting.

I think my music is definitely country but it's got a little bit of that rock flair about it. I always try to find the things that everyday people deal with in their everyday lives and situations in the songs that I sing.

I listen to the radio and I like all kinds of music, you know, but I like to hear from people who have been there. Hank Williams has been there.

When you write songs you're commenting on love, you're commenting on sex, relationships, whatever it is that you decide to write about it. And I've wanted to write about politics or spiritual ideas for years.

What songwriting does better than almost anything is empathy - it's incredibly empathetic. The reason people sat around in bars when they were bummed out and listened to country songs is because it made them feel better in the long run.

Maybe if my songs feel personal, that's very nice. I like that. I take that as a great compliment.

But for now, I just sat there on the bed and listened to my song. The one that had been written for me by a man who knew me not at all, now sung by the one who knew me best.