Keith Whitley Quotes

I grew up listening to my mother's collection of Hank Williams, George Jones and Marty Robbins records.

I remember being young in the backseat when my grandma would take me to school, and I would be literally singing and belting out Tina Turner at 3 years old.

I remember always looking forward to listening to country music in the car with my mother, and it wasn't even something I enjoyed in the sense of music, but just being around music itself was enough.

Whenever I'd go anywhere with my dad - in his 1980 burgundy Dodge Ram - he'd always listen to mix tapes of country-music stars like Garth Brooks, Clint Black and Willie Nelson. Those were the first songs I ever learned the words to.

My mom had a tape of Patsy Cline's greatest hits, and whenever we were in the car, she would put it on, and it got to the point where I knew all the words to every one of the songs, and I knew what order they came in on the tape.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Shania Twain. I would always go sing the song 'Honey I'm Home.' I was, like, 12, and I'm singing about coming home from work and PMS and stuff.

My dad listened to a lot of James Taylor when I was growing up. We had a couple of his cassettes in the car, and we'd go on a lot of long family car trips. It was either strange musicals or James Taylor - or Whitney Houston. It was quite the combination there.

I've loved musical theater ever since I was a kid. My mother's a pianist, and my grandfather was an amateur theater director and stand-up comic. And I was an only child. And I loved attention. So from an early age, my family was teaching old musical songs.

I grew up loving Broadway musicals. I'd put on my parents' cast albums and stand on the stool and sing in the mirror.

The day I heard Hank Williams for the first time, my life changed.

I listened to a lot of what my grandparents listened to: George Jones, Johnny Cash - a lot of old country singers. Patsy Cline.

I was 5 years old when I first broke into my mother's records and played Nat King Cole, and sat alongside the stereo and listened to Nat's music.

I think the first music I ever heard was Abba. I took my mother's cassette recorder and went into the bushes to listen to Abba when I was four or five-years-old.

With Del Shannon - and I've got to tell you this - there's nobody probably on the face of the earth that I identified more with musically. We used to sit and sing George Jones and Hank Williams tunes.

When I was 5 years old, I got my first record. It was 'Flatt & Scruggs' Greatest Hits.' The second was 'The Fabulous Johnny Cash.'

I always sang around the house. My brother and I would sing songs like 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' and stuff like that.

I remember George Jones singing on television, but not any of the songs he sang. What I remember was my visceral reaction to him, the intensity of my distaste.

I grew up listening to country music with my dad on the way to school.

I used to sing Chaka Khan tunes in the car with my mum when I was eight years old.

Since I was five years old, when my mom was still alive, she would just call me. And we would listen to the radio with Barbra Streisand and Karen Carpenter, and she would ask me to sing with her.

I've always sung in the shower and I watched a lot of 'Rage' when I was young.

I was a kid who was born and raised on Johnny Cash. My father played 'At Folsom Prison' constantly. Cash was the only thing I remember coming from our big, warm stereo console. Even then, I knew Cash was uncool. I knew he was an unhip Republican.

My dad always played Anne Murray in the car on the way to the dump when I was a kid.

I love Hank Williams. Who doesn't love Hank Williams? So my choices are not that surprising.

My parents went to Italy a lot, but I didn't go with them. I can't believe that!