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.

Country music has become the music that best represents the reality of American life.

It means so much being a part of country music and the Opry.

I try to write like the writers I admire - I rip them off in form. It comes from George Strait and Merle Haggard records, and country music in general is really good at that, the twisted phrase... So I'm always looking for that angle in my own work.

As much as the R&B people, and the gospel people, and spiritual music, and the country-western people influenced them, I think the Beatles were the bar. And they set the bar, and nobody's quite been able to jump beyond it.

I got to where I couldn't listen to country radio, ... Country music is supposed to have steel and fiddle. When I hear country music, it should be country.