What we don't need in country music is divisiveness, public criticism of each other, and some arbitrary judgement of what belongs and what doesn't.

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

I was sometimes jeered by black soldiers who wanted me to sing something besides country music.

Until MTV, television had not been a huge influence on music. To compete with MTV, the country music moguls felt they had to appeal to the same young audience and do it the way MTV did.

It was unlikely that anyone had ever heard a black person sing country music.