I was very keen on people like Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Gene Vincent.

A certain death of an artist is overconfidence.

The first real thing I heard was Three O'Clock Blues by B.B. King. That's where it all began for me.

I can't say I feel influenced by today's guitar players.

I didn't want to get attached to one guitar; I didn't want to have an instrument that was irreplaceable.

It all comes down to the density of the wood. Every guitar's different.

I go through about two Fender mediums a night because I don't pick straight down; it's sort of sideways, and it shaves them off.

I don't tend to have a favorite album; I tend to have favorite tracks. There are flaws in every album that spoil it for me.

I got a guitar when I was about 14, for a Christmas present, and went from there.

It's impossible to play a run with as much feeling as a single note. I've never been so much into runs as making single notes cry.

When you start believing you're something special, then you're not going to be striving to move forward.

Have high hopes for the future

A man's life is all he has. When you're old, it's all you'll ever have.

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

My parents couldn't handle my energy so they enrolled me in every sport the school was offering. I didn't resent it because I loved sports and picked them up easily.

Rather than thinking, 'If I do this, and in five years I'll be where I want to be,' you're better just doing something that makes you happy now.

History's lesson is to make the most of reform opportunities when they arise because they do not arise often and they do not last long.

Right attitudes produces right action

Nothing was more valuable than the printed word.

Talent is truth on display.

No Christian can be a pessimist, for Christianity is a system of radical optimism.