Quotes from Sturgill Simpson

Kentucky isn't particularly religious.

I someday hope to find the time and coin to invest more of my creative energy towards the visual media side of releasing music.

I wanted to make an album that takes a journey through all my favorite periods in music and then culminates in something that will most likely end my career.

I walked in, looked around, and the navy recruiter was a really hot brunette, so I signed up with her.

All I'm really interested in musically is trying to make concept albums. Serving a larger sum than the parts.

I knew I loved playing bluegrass, so I'd end up down there on Sunday nights at the bluegrass jam.

Elvis was a way bigger influence than Waylon Jennings, but you don't wanna tell people, 'I never really listened to Waylon.'

I'm not meant to sit on the couch and not play music. But I never want to feel like I have to put out a record. I don't want to ever make those records.

Looking back on it, now I can identify the points in my life when I wasn't playing, and music - and didn't have that outlet - those were the points when I was most unguided and self destructive because I didn't have that channel to get those energies out. I'm a much healthier person when I play music.

It's hard enough to sit at a table and talk to most people as it is. But we can go to some town, and there's 300 people we've never met before, and by the third song, we're connecting with everyone in that room.

I saw Dolly Parton play at the Glastonbury Festival to about 120,000 people. It was an ocean of human beings. I was a mile away from the stage, and I swear to God, I could feel her energy.

Atlantic has been great to me. They didn't flinch when I told them I was self-producing, and nobody was popping their head in the studio.

Saviours get crucified.

I believe framing reality is one of the only ways we can ever be sure it actually exists. In that regard, I feel as though I'm still learning who I am as an artist.

I think when you're dealing with any issues about trying to become a better human being, you have to look at a lot of things about yourself that maybe you don't want to or aren't able to.

That might be completely self-indulgent, to write your first major-label debut as a dedication to your family. But, you know, that's where my heart was.

I love tape. It's another member of the band, the way it settles and blankets everything.

I want all that dirt and grime and life-sauce. A lot of my favorite old soul records have it, but you don't hear it on country records anymore.

I thought it was hilarious when 'Brace for Impact' was released, and people said I had abandoned country, even though the song is dripping with pedal steel. If anything, that tells me I'm making progress.

Part of me still feels like I've never had the opportunity to properly express all my earliest influences, so for now, I find isolation to be my biggest influence.

I just really want to make - to be cliche about it, I want to make pretty music. Like Roy Orbison or Elvis, man. Those guys made beautiful, tender music.

I want people to focus on listening, not the image. And I want to play to everyone: rednecks, dubstep kids, punk rockers, and people who like as-real-as-it-gets country music.

I grew up listening to everything. I was in rock n' roll bands and punk bands, and I loved bluegrass and country music, too. Then, when I moved to Nashville, I put out a very traditional country record because that's just what you do. I had a bunch of very traditional country songs. Next thing you know, you're a country singer.

I knew I wanted to make a concept record in song-cycle form, like my favorite Marvin Gaye records where everything just continuously flows.