Jennifer Nettles Quotes

My songs are my stories... good, bad, ugly, beautiful.

I'm self-deprecating, but I'm an artist, too. I have to write new songs to chronicle stuff for myself. I write a song like 'Middle Age' or 'Responsibility' or 'I Just Work Here,' and it's about how bleak life can be. But it's real.

With songs, I've always pledged to be honest. I write my songs because I've lived them.

I like the purity of telling stories now because not a lot of people are telling stories in their music. I wanna tell my specific story: what I see right now.

If I'm talking about girls and stuff, it's usually the truth. So now, you know, if you hear my songs, you are gonna appreciate it differently because usually, it's the truth.

I've always wanted to be a woman who isn't afraid to tell her story.

I'm a student of Eric Church, and I say that a lot... I was drawn to it because of the honesty and because it's got rough edges on it. He doesn't shy away from anything, and that's the way I wanted to be.

You do your best to tell your own story, in the most specific way, and then you hope that that travels well, when it's done with heart and honesty.

I'm a songwriter, and people will tell you the greatest stories about their lives, whether you want to hear it or not.

When you write down your life, every page should contain something no one has ever heard about.

I'm not really an autobiographical writer, though I use lots of stuff from my life to make my stories seem real. But when I actually write about myself, I get very confused.

Songwriters tell the truth.

They say, 'Write what you know.' What I know isn't cheerleader; it has a little bit of teeth to it.

I sing songs that I have lived or I write them because I have lived them. I think the believability factor is key.

Although rap is about boasting, it's also about honesty and expressing your emotions.

There's always going to be life experiences that find their way into my songs.

If you're gonna tell your life story, you gotta be honest, or don't do it.

I write to be truthful in my songs, which is why I wrote what's painfully truthful about my life in my autobiography.

In order for me to write, I have to experience life. I write the songs based on real life, and I perform them from a very real place.

Country music is three chords and the truth.

I've had mentors who were kind of the troubadour singer-songwriters, like Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and that's just what I've always liked - people who would talk real honestly about their lives and their circumstance.

I write my songs because I've lived them.

Songwriting is the most terrifying thing to me, because you are really laying your heart out there.

A writer should have this little voice inside of you saying, Tell the truth. Reveal a few secrets here.

I'm just writing songs about how I feel or about how people I know feel.