Quotes About Authenticity

I'm always amazed that people take what I say seriously. I don't even take what I am seriously.

I'm not trying to play the guitar. I'm trying to play music.

To hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.

No matter how many people give me advice, I am going to do what my heart tells me to do

We hide ourselves in our music to reveal ourselves

What you see is kinda what you get with me. I'm a very real person, or I hope to be, anyway. I don't have nothing to hide

The tastes of country music fans are not limited to the narrow range defined by consultants and programmers and record company moguls.

I want to reach the point where people hear my name and immediately think of real country music.

Kids look up to me. I'm not saying I make my music for kids, I do what I feel, its just a self reflection of how I am as a person and it relates to a lot of people.

Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

To me our music is like Jamaican stuff - if they can't hear it, they're not supposed to hear it. It's not for them if they can't understand it.

If you fake the funk, your nose will grow.

I have always taken care to put an idea or emotion behind my words. I have made it a habit to be suspicious of the mere music of words.

I don't pay attention to sales because it's not about that for me. It's about the music. Music is all I have.

I've always written songs that were confessional, acoustic, wordy - my writing style matches my personality. The music always has to match the mouth it comes out of.

It's the honesty you apply to your playing that makes music enjoyable. The style of the music has little to do with it. It's only honesty makes it beautiful.

The two things you can't fake are good food and good music

Hipness is not a state of mind, It's a fact of life!

You cant make your music good. You cant try to be good. You can try to be present and you can try to remain open so what is going to speak to you can speak through you.

Speaking of River City in The Music Man & his home town, Mason City, Iowa: I didn't have to make up anything. I simply remembered Mason City as closely as I could.

If everyone in the music business were brutally honest about what their intentions were then you could sort things out, but it's all smoke and mirrors.

Our show doesn't rely on the typical whistles and bells, and smoke and mirrors. It relies mostly on the music.

To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel not the way others think you should feel.