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I've always been fascinated by the Mississippi River and the way of life in these small river towns.

In Tennessee where I grew up, there were animals, farms, wagons, mules.

Ah, my dad's whistle. On holidays when I was a kid, we would all be off in the rock pools along the beach. When it came time to go, we'd hear the whistle and we'd all come running. Like dogs!

I love Tennessee, but they don't have the pine trees and the sandy soil and the black water that I grew up around.

I grew up in east Tennessee, and everybody knew everybody's business.

That Mississippi sound, that Delta sound is in them old records. You can hear it all the way through.

I once paddled a canoe the length of the Mississippi River all the way from Itasca to New Orleans.

There was a train that would come by our house every night, and I'd hear the whistle blow. That is the sweetest memory I have.

I didn't come east of the Mississippi for the first time in my life until I was 26 years of age, but I knew. I read magazines, I listened to radio, I watched television. I knew there was something out there, and I wanted a part of it.

I wrote 'The River' practically trying to rip off every lick that James Taylor had, so it was neat to hear him sing those lyrics because that's who inspired you to write them.