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I think every once in a while country has lost its way, but found its way back. It's always going to drift away from the traditional side, but then find a way to return. There's room for all kinds of influences be it pop, blues, gospel or whatever. But I will always say that I think we need more traditional country music coming down the pike.

Country music is just country. It's going to shift around a little bit, doing some different instrumentations, different production styles. But it will always come back to what you heard at the Opry. Nobody wants it to change.

Country music has changed tremendously, so what now is considered country was not considered country at that time. We were doing stuff that probably could have been called country music today, but would certainly have not have fit in at that time.

Rock & roll has kept us alive for all these years. But we just love country music. It's in our blood.

The industry is always changing, but country music is like a force that always comes back.

There's been a shift: Country music is popular music now. Every other genre wants to come over to our land.

The country experience was more of a departure. When you consider my education and my upbringing, you can see that was more of country rock outgrowth of my popular music aspirations.

There are so many music genres competing against each other, but I feel like country music has always been a unified front.

I do think I'm country, but your definition of that word might be different from my definition. In my opinion, country music, the sound of country, has always evolved. But the one thing that has not changed is the story element. And I think country songs are truthful songs about life written by country people.

The truth is, I think country music... there's a lot of great people, and just being raised the way a lot of country boys and girls are, hopefully there's just a lot of respect.