My older brothers used to take me to the shows to see Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, all of that you know, the Western movies.

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.

So John Wayne ... rolled in the saddle as his nag ran at a gallop in the snow toward the chest-high fence. The horse stretched, Duke rose, and the two cleared the fence with plenty of room.

Acting alongside the larger-than-life star I'd grown up idolizing back in Delight, Arkansas, was truly one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

I had albums before that, but once the TV show started everything really took off, ... I used that show to get every country act I could onto television.

I guess I'm like Roger Miller who used to say that he didn't have as many jokes as he thought he did.