You can't write about stuff you don't know about. You have to live it. You have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Live life to be a good songwriter.

The radio is not show fun, it's show business. It's money.

I mean, the last thing I want to do is be involved in politics.

I think about me and my dad taking a road trip from Phoenix to Nashville when I was 19. He's no longer here with me, but I still drive that same 1994 Chevy truck. I never have bought a new car.

I've had some shows where I really plan out what I'm going to say. Then I've had other shows where I'm like, 'Take a sip of the Ole Smoky Moonshine and just let it be natural and cross your fingers that you say the right things.'

No, as an artist, you have to be free to explore all the corners of your heart. There are no boundaries.

I always say the best applause you can get is when you walk from backstage up to your microphone at a concert. It's also nice to walk up to the mike at an awards show, and that applause is great, too, but the best is when your fans are cheering for you.

My guitar, it was new when I got it, but it has a hole like Willie's where it's just worn out from my pinky going back and forth over the wood over all these years. I got Willie Nelson to sign that spot on my guitar. I'm a huge fan of him.

People are gravitating towards Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders because they are doing their own thing. I think people are trying to cut out the middle man and just get to the source and get away from Washington politics.

Springsteen - he's the Lord God.

As I'd go out learning to surf, I'd feel the power of waves coming over my body. It's like you're with God.

My philosophy is that on a scale of 1 to 10, I will go to 15. No matter what!

When my guitar was growling, playing surf beat, you could hear it; you could feel it.

What I play now isn't surf music. It's too powerful. I used to go through paper bags; now I go through brick walls. I play hard.

I do not play to musicians. I play to the people.

I've never taken a lesson in my life, and I can play every instrument there is. I play by ear, but I can fool anybody into thinking I went to some conservatory of music.

My father never put me on his lap and said he loved me.

If I ever wrote a book, people would never believe it.

Whatever you do, don't take shortcuts. It's great advice to take and live by.

I like to say, 'I hit every type of music in a show, and I play the people, not the instruments.'

I may play the same songs night to night, but I never play them the same way.

I've been called 'the father of loud.'

When I come onstage, I'm exploding.

I answer number one to myself, because I know myself. I answer to my fans, because they know me. My mother knows me and God knows me, and that's where it's at.