'Father' meant to me provider... and I was working myself to death... but I wasn't physically home; I wasn't there every day.

I just like people. I'll hold a conversation at a gas station. It's not about the fame and the fortune, I just like people.

Lionel Richie, love song, OK, thank you very much, good-bye. And all of a sudden I realized that, in my career, what has made my career has always been the surprises.

It's quite interesting that in my growing up I had several influences. We had gospel music on campus. R&B music was, of course, the community, and radio was country music. So I can kind of see where all the influences came from.

I grew up with the Grand Ole Opry, Dottie West, Conway Twitty, Buck Owens... not realizing it was influencing me as much as it was.

My earliest memories of country music are the Grand Ole Opry.