I'm not a country picker, really - I like a nice, beefy, raunchy sort of sound.
I've been touching instruments since the day I was born. My mother is Brazilian, and she listens to Brazilian music. My father was a musician, and I've seen pictures of him when he was in a band playing guitar and piano. He loved country music, Frank Sinatra, and stuff like that.
When I had my television show, 'Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters,' it was my high hope to convert people to country music. It is wonderful and contagious!
John Prine in particular... just the chord changes combined with the words. He definitely can make you cry a little bit. Just a little bit.
I was sometimes jeered by black soldiers who wanted me to sing something besides country music.
I grew up singing Ray Charles and Jimmy Reed.
I can't think of another artist who has a fan base as diverse, in that the ladies in their 70s at the 4-H club have the same collection of Johnny Cash records as the punk on the street in Amsterdam.
I was four days old when I went to my first bluegrass festival.
I think if my father was a truck driver, I would have wanted to share the beauty that was there. He just happens to be Johnny Cash.
Emmylou Harris is just the biggest influence of mine musically, her and Dolly Parton.
Country music tell stories. That's something that I can relate to.
I grew up listening to a lot of soul music, and a lot of folk music.
I used to love watching 'Hee Haw' on TV when I was a kid. My brothers and sisters weren't happy about it, but I just loved the music.
I was 17, and a friend said, 'Man, you've got to listen to this song,' and he played 'Man to Man.' From there on, I was hooked on country. Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Clint Black. Every show that came through America West Arena, I was there.
Or like in the early 70's when we had the reaction against acid rock and all the fuzz tone, and feedback, and the noise. And you had James Taylor and everyone went acoustic and that.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'.
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.
As a kid I used to pretend I was John Denver, of all people, and play the guitar and sing Take Me Home, Country Roads.
Steve Earle had a mainstream career. Dwight Yoakam had a mainstream career. Willie Nelson did. But they always made good music, they always stuck to who they were. They weren't relying on radio like a lot of people are in Nashville.
When I think about country music, I think about America.
I always give a lot of credit to Ronnie Dunn for making me fall in love with country music.
Country music is the song that speaks to the American condition. It's middle America. Eight out of 10 people. Maybe it's not the No. 1 choice, but they listen to country.
Dad had a way of defining himself. He couldn't put his finger on whether it was rock 'n' roll or country.
George Jones was my all-time favorite singer and one of my favorite people in the world.
I love pop music, I love country music.
