RICKY SKAGGS

When I hear bluegrass today, I hear so many new sounds in it. It's almost like country music in a way.

The fall is my favorite time of year. I love the colors. The sun is out, you get warmth on your skin but there's the coolness of the breeze. It's really comfortable.

We should give the Lord the excellence He deserves in everything we do.

It's part of the calling to at least do a few songs in the show that give people some hope. There's so much hurt in this world and... music is such a great healing balm and a great way to forget your troubles.

I feel like have a lot of music left to cut in my life.

I've had a couple of guys that I've had co-produce records with me through my career, and it's fun to work with a co-producer.

I mean, I could tell that I really had... a precious gift. And I'm so glad that I have followed through with it and really used that gift and nurtured it, honed it, made it sharp and tried to use it as a tool now to make music and to make a living for my family.

When I came here it wasn't that I was anti-Music Row, but it was like I was going against the grain of what everybody on Music Row was doing, and that's what has made me successful.

Country and western is ignored by the intellectuals. They don't look at it as an art form. They think it's just somebody sitting on his couch singing about his life.

Even with the sun beaming down on me I'm not sweating in my mind. I'm not sweating in my heart or in my career.

When Jack White called and wanted me to do a video and play mandolin with The Raconteurs, I didn't know anything about The Raconteurs at that time.

Maybe you're going to a concert thinking you're not going to hear anything but music. But you may walk away from there with an answer to a problem that you're carrying around with you that you didn't think you were going to hear about.

I hate negative songs; I won't sing them. It doesn't matter if it's sold 2 million more albums.

The difference between me and the newer artists is that I have the history with the architects, the masters that started the music. I know where the music came from.

I've got tapes that I'm so thankful that my father made - old reel-to-reel tapes. I've got a ton of those things at home. He kept those like fine diamonds, I mean he kept them, you know, in a box and was very, very careful of them, you know.

Great music is great music, period.

I look back to when I got divorced in the late 1970s. When that happened, I was so broken up. After that, I decided to seek God for my life and my next marriage.

That's kind of the mission statement for the label: to try to do great music that touches people's hearts.

I had some good teachers. One of the greatest teachers I've had is bluegrass music: going back and listening to Bill Monroe's music, the Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs. When I was with Ralph Stanley I learned a lot from him.

I don't feel like I've nearly got to the place where I'm ready to even slow down.

I just want to keep playing music and keep recording. I feel like my best days are ahead.

Country's hip; it's cool music.

There's art in rhythm playing. Just find it. Make your own art. Find your place, and when it's your time to solo, it's your time to shine.

I just love to have fun with music, and try to find songs that say something that people want to hear.

Do excellent work for Christ. So that's my heart. It's always been. And I want to be the best I can be. I want to make a difference in my generation.