We need all those divisions of country music, firing on all cylinders.
When I was 12 years old I discovered Bill Monroe and my dad got me a mandolin.
The Ryman and the Grand Ole Opry, if you're a Southern boy, is just a way of life.
Like so many other people I was raised right, went crazy but I always knew God had His hand on me.
People shouldn't be punished for their wisdom.
It's hard for a country performer to make a living in a Beatles society.
I've always been a collector at heart.
Rock 'n' roll entertained my head but there was something about country music that touched my heart.
After people work hard and cope with the pressures of life throughout the week, going out to a show or tuning in to watch some characters in cowboy clothes, singing and playing songs about real life is something I relate to.
I started out in gospel music. A lot of people don't know that I started out in gospel music, and I've never lost sight of it.
Nobody in my school knew who Bill Monroe was, or Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and barely Johnny Cash. Nobody spoke that language. I proceeded to get myself kicked out.
When I started making some paychecks, I didn't invest in stocks and bonds - I invested in American culture.
Sun Studios was where so much of American music exploded from.
I have a low-tech camera with one lens that I've shot everything in my life on. My subjects and my subject matter sometimes really are powerful, and so my job is to get it into focus.
I've always loved gospel music. Being raised in Mississippi, it was kind of part of the atmosphere down there.
I got to Nashville on Labor Day weekend in 1972. And the Grand Ole Opry is still there, the Country Music Hall of Fame is still there. And the roots of country music are still there. It's where the authenticity and the empowering force lies.
I saw footage of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley just hanging out together in Memphis when they were young guys getting started at Sun, listening to records together. That was beautiful to me.
I can't remember when I didn't have an instrument around.
I hate labels.
I don't have many regrets in my life. But I have one. I would have stayed sober all along.