Wisdom worth sharing, words worth remembering.
Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought of purpose and of action over a long period of time.
Your success story is a bigger story than whatever you're trying to say on stage. Success makes life easier. It doesn't make living easier.
The only thing I can say about having this type of success is that you can get yourself in trouble because basically the world is set open for you. People will say yes to anything you ask so it's basically down to you and what you want or need.
You can't have a United States if you are telling some folks that they can't get on the train. There is a cracking point where a society collapses.
It's a sad man my friend who's livin' in his own skin and can't stand the company.
Plus you know when I was young there was a lot of respect for clowning in rock music – look at Little Richard. It was a part of the whole thing and I always also believed that it released the audience.
I think politics come out of psychology.
There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical questioning and often angry patriotism.
And whether you're drawn to gospel music or church music or honky-tonk music it informs your character and it informs your talent.
I think that is what film and art and music do they can work as a map of sorts for your feelings.
I can sing very comfortably from my vantage point because a lot of the music was about a loss of innocence there's innocence contained in you but there's also innocence in the process of being lost.
Some of the greatest blues music is some of the darkest music you've ever heard.
