Cowboys had guitars. And they sang country 'cause they lived in the country.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I was writing country songs, but I wasn't listening to country yet. I grew up on a farm in East Tennessee, so my roots are country, you know? But I didn't know where those songs came from or where they fit.
With the Gap Band coming from Oklahoma, other artists would tease us by calling us cowboys. We didn't grow up on a ranch, but we took that style to the stage. We knew that it was corny, but at least it was ours.
Country music belongs to America.
I came to town thinking that everybody had the same idea of what country music was that I did.
I grew up with the Highwaymen, which was Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. Mom and Dad rode rodeo, so country music was always in the house and the car. They threw in some Dolly Parton, too.
The word matters in country music, and it always has. And everybody had lived those words in country songs.
Country music originates with the colloquial, rural aspects of white America. It's really, truly, rural white America's blues.
I figure the oldies are real close to what rocking country use to be.
A country song is a song about life.
There were a lot of heads turning when people found out I was doing music and when they found out it was country, they were like, 'What?'
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