Country California

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To the wingnuts: Taylor Swift is country — every bit as country as Rascal Flatts or Keith Urban or Kenny Chesney or any of the other current country pop acts on country radio and on the Billboard charts. ●
- – … so she’s not country? If you disagree with Chet Flippo, you’re a wingnut.

And he just finished a ride to No. 1 with “She’s Country,” a song that’s as hard-rockin’ and edgy as anything that’s appeared in country’s Top 10. While it’s been embraced, the single left music critics scratching their heads as they tried to define it. It blends country and rock, but it’s not the kind of country-rock one would associate with the Eagles or the Flying Burrito Brothers. ●
- – Haven’t critics pretty much unanimously pegged it as rock? I haven’t seen much head-scratching.

I’ve sold more records in a week with this thing than I’ve sold in a long time. Which hurts a little. ●
- – Steve Earle on experiencing commercial success with someone else’s songs (e.g. his tribute to Townes).

If my wife would let me, I’d turn Manhattan into a giant whiskey, go-go bar. All I wanna do is be the big dog daddy and I’ll take all the money they got. ●
- – You can always count on Toby Keith to class up the joint.

My high-school sweater has three years of varsity letters on it. I was a fast forward. I’d run between their legs. ●
- – Little Jimmy Dickens on high school basketball.

[She's] arguably one of the best country voices of all time – not just female voices, I mean one of the best country voices of all time. The power that comes out of that little woman is just astounding. ●
- – Jamey Johnson on Lee Ann Womack.

David Allan Coe posited in his “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” that the perfect country song had to be comprised of a bouillabaisse of elements, including mentions of Mama, getting drunk, prison, and trains. There is a strong argument that trucks and/or trucking should be included in those criteria. ●
- – From Brady Vercher: Did he look up how to spell bouillabaisse and not take the time to look up “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” to realize that trucks are already part of the list?

When that album (‘If You’re Going Through Hell’) first came out, I made the mistake of looking at reviews. People said I was too optimistic, I celebrated life too much. They’d read my biography. I’d been through so much adversity, but you don’t focus on that. You count your blessings, not problems. ●
- – Seriously, you guys are such downers. I’m listening to nothing but Rodney Atkins from here on out.

Anyway, one of the things that’s helped me is that I didn’t start living and breathing music when I was 15. I was 25 when I came to Nashville, had been married several years, and had worked jobs since I was 12. I’d lived a lot of life before I got to Nashville, and that gave me a lot of files that I pull from still today. ●
- – Alan Jackson is glad for a late start.

We were lower middle class, and everyone I knew was — we didn’t know there was anything different. I have this theory … this is a bit of curveball, but people who are really good kissers never have anything given to them. People who can’t kiss had everything given to them. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m a hell of a kisser. ●
- – That is a bit of a curveball, Kenny Chesney. By which I mean that it doesn’t make much sense, other than it gives you a chance to talk about how you think you’re a good kisser.

He was a car valet by night, a starving songwriter by day, until he finally scored a record deal and put out his debut album in 1994. He was a pedestrian talent at first, a pretty boy in a cowboy hat with a decent baritone voice. ●
- – From the same Chesney article. At first? I guess fame hasn’t changed him.

Maybe somebody will pop out of (the cake). Let me think, who would I like to pop out of my cake? It would be somebody who is a member of the Opry. I know, Little Jimmy Dickens in a rhinestone Speedo and his hat. ●
- – Lorrie Morgan is celebrating 25 years of Opry membership… with some very strange fantasies. Quick, someone get the image of Dickens’ rhinestone Speedo out of my head…

It’s going great, man, it’s going great…
We do, we do…
We have, we have…
They’re great, they’re great…
Yeah, yeah… ●
- – Dave Haywood answers most interview questions by repeating himself. That’s weird, man, that’s weird.