Carlene Carter Quotes

I experimented and explored ways to find my own niche in Nashville, and I was having trouble with it for a while because stylistically, I didn't feel like I necessarily fit in.

The other guys in Hootie were into rock. I brought the country influence.

In the early '70s, I started to feel like Philadelphia soul was the black-sheep brother of rock and roll. I decided to try to get away from it.

To some extent at that time, we injected rock and roll into that scene- we played loud and that was a huge turning point for that scene. We were involved in playing with all those people.

There's been a shift: Country music is popular music now. Every other genre wants to come over to our land.

Some people think I'm a rock 'n' roll musician and some think I'm a jazz musician but, for me, there is no difference.

I think the great country songs mixed with some of that bluegrass instrumentation - and surrounding all that with a little bit of a rock vibe and energy - is the kind of music I make.

I think they want to keep it separate, but I've never been a crossover artist for some reason.

I've always wanted to make records that rock like hell. But also, I've never wanted to compromise that Country place deep inside.

I never fit in with straight country. I never really fit in with rock n' roll. I've always been somewhere in between all this stuff.

I laid my country music aside for quite a while... because bluegrass audiences didn't care to hear it. But it just kept haunting me.

The lines have definitely blurred between country and pop music.

Country is and always will be my heart, but I don't have a problem with it spilling over into pop if it wants to.

I liked rock music, I kind of moved into that sphere, somehow thinking that somewhere along the line I'd be able to put the two together. And I suppose I very nearly did with the Ziggy character.

When I embraced the rock hat, when I put it on two or three years ago, when I realized I'm gonna go and make really focused rock albums, it felt like wearing an old shoe. It was a perfect fit.

If Mozart were around now he would write a killer rock song.

If twang isn't what I do, I don't know what is.

I didn't say I wasn't gonna do rockabilly. I just said I ain't gonna sing no song that ain't a country song. I won't be known as anything but a country singer.

Our songs did not transcend being R&B hits. They were R&B hits that white kids were attracted to. And if people bought it, it became rock & roll. That's marketing. Why couldn't it still be R&B? The bass pattern didn't change. The song didn't change. It was still 'Yakety Yak' and 'Searchin'.'

I was born at the beginning of rock and roll. I got to experience the entire evolution of popular rock and roll music even before it started.

I have a very difficult time describing my music.

I am consciously trying not to make it sound Celtic or African.

When we were first started we were doing a lot of Motown stuff, but actually playing it more in a rock way. Everybody in the band sang and we did a lot of harmonies.

One of my problems is I'm not really sure if I slot into rock or not. I've always tried to combine world music, folk, jazz, blues and rock, and have done since Traffic.

The country experience was more of a departure. When you consider my education and my upbringing, you can see that was more of country rock outgrowth of my popular music aspirations.