I cannot with any real integrity perform songs I've done for 25 years. I don't need the money. What I need is to feel that I am not letting myself down as an artist and that I still have something to contribute.

The Grand Ole Opry is an artist, and I am proud to be one of its songs.

I cannot and will not play something if I still have questions. I feel like I am being fraudulent.

I'm looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I will play everybody.

I'm always amazed that people take what I say seriously. I don't even take what I am seriously.

Age doesn't bother me. So many of my heroes were older guys. It's the lack of years left that weighs far heavier on me than the age that I am.