Everything I've done in my career is a result of growing up in rural Oklahoma, because if I hadn't had the training from Mama and Daddy to work hard, to do what I'm told, to take directions, to mind and to do a good job at anything I set out to do, then I wouldn't be where I am today.

Growing up is not being so dead-set on making everybody happy.

You've got to stay current and up with the competition. The main thing, though, is finding the greatest songs you can possibly find.

All the money in the world can't buy you back good health.

I'm kind of a boring person. People think I get to travel the world and I rap or whatever, but I'm pretty boring. My life is pretty crazy enough, and when I'm not on the road or doing something, I'm kind of boring.

I don't spend a lot on holidays, but have been very fortunate to travel extensively through doing various challenges around the world. The best place I've ever been is Argentina.

The future continues to preoccupy me as a reliable source of hopes, fears and anxieties, but increasingly the present seems to have no outstanding qualities of its own, being merely a way-station through which events travel to the vast shadow lands of the past.

I am always exhausted; I am always trying to find more time to be with my family, which is why they travel with me so much.