This is how it has been since time began: If you want to make something really worthwhile and true, then you have to suffer for it.

Most of the music you hear on the radio today is developed for making money. It doesn't feel true or honest. You can feel it in the music.

If something bothers me, it bothers me for a long time until I find a way to work it out. Music provided me with a means of working things out.

Maybe I spent more time dwelling on emotions than some people, and maybe that's why I ended up writing.

And I've been walking 'round with memories way too long.

I honestly don't listen to a lot of music - I spend so much time working at my own music.

I was mainly influenced by the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, and others like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash.

We got CEOs making 200 times the worker's pay, but they'll fight like hell against raising the minimum wage.

I've always written about things that cause me to feel something.

I've always been aware of having feelings that were pretty intense at times. I imagine most people have had that, or they wouldn't be human.

I don't describe myself as a Christian or religious, but I like to think that how I live my life is honest.

AWESOME things come to those who focus on the positive, recognize the blessings, find the humor and never give up!

Utterances of cursed language defiles the hearts and souls of man and many.

Pressure has the power to create a diamond, but it has to be the "right" pressure.

And that was it. That was the moment when everything started to shift. What do you want?

... strong bonds are forged in high emotional temperatures.

Climbing K2 or floating the Grand Canyon in an inner tube; there are some things one would rather have done than do.

I'd rather be a musician than a rockstar.

It is a great misfortune to be alone, my friends; and it must be believed that solitude can quickly destroy reason.

I really think the most important thing I do is to protect the dignity and the integrity of the Office of the Surgeon General.