Dwight Yoakam Quotes

My grandmother influenced me so deeply.

My biggest musical influences are probably my parents.

My mom was a singer, and my dad had been playing in bands with my mom's brother. My dad married my mom, and so I was sorta surrounded by music from the get-go. Born right into it.

I was always nervous to play my father's [John Lennon's] songs.

People are always coming up to me and saying, 'I love you, love your work.' And then the next sentence is, 'I loved your brother.' John made people laugh, and laughter is a powerful thing.

From the first moment that I can remember, I had identified myself as a bass player and it had everything to do with my father, who was a bass player. And he loved music, you know, as much as anybody I've ever seen. And that dynamic I just thought as somehow was a straight pass to me.

My mother was a singer, and both of her sisters were singers. There was always music around.

I don't just come from a musical family, but from a musical community.

I would say my grandmother would be like my personal god.

I have great respect for Catholic traditions; my family is Catholic, and it's part of my life.

You must remember I grew up around music. Three of my family were musicians.

Our parents were musicians.

My grandmother would sing in the choir, while my dad - while he was in college - sang and recorded with a quartet. So yeah, it was definitely my dad's Southern side that impacted on me musically.

I come from a place where there's a lot of musical families.

I think my grandmother Woodrell was most responsible for my becoming a writer. She wasn't quite literate, but was very proud that she attended school as far as the third grade. She worked as a maid, housekeeper and cook.

I blame my grandmother for encouraging me to become an actress.

I was very much raised by my grandmother, who actually was Bette Davis - looked like her, acted like her, talked like her. Probably, it was just out of my love and affection for my grandmother that I was interested in Bette.

I think my grandmother was one of my biggest influences.

Wouldn't you say that most of us are a reflection of or a reaction to the people who have been closest to us? I'm a reflection of my grandmother.

That's where I get my whole music theory from, my pops and my grandfather.

I try to be a friend to my boys just the way my dad was with me. Subconsciously that reflects in my writing.

My songs would be nothing had it not been for my father. I follow his footsteps.

Adrian Leon LeBlanc, my dad and my namesake, his keen joy in observing people and the world is the reason I became a journalist.

I think the model that I look at is someone like Jakob Dylan, whose dad is obviously every bit if not more famous than mine. He's a guy who sought to build a career on his own, doing something that's a little bit different than what his father does.

I always have been very musically influenced because of my dad. He had a very big record collection, so I dabbled in different genres.