Nashville Scene Quotes

Steve Earle had a mainstream career. Dwight Yoakam had a mainstream career. Willie Nelson did. But they always made good music, they always stuck to who they were. They weren't relying on radio like a lot of people are in Nashville.

I'm from Tullahoma, TN which is an hour south of Nashville, and I grew up and wanted to be like Garth Brooks, so I moved to Nashville when I was 18 to chase a dream.

And I got to know Red Foley well. And I got to know Lefty really well, he was a great guy.

The best compliment I ever had is, one day I was in Nashville, some disc jockey said, Hey, that sounds like a Tom T. Hall song. Up until then there hadn't been any such thing.

I remember in the '80s, Randy Travis was my guy. He's the reason I moved to Nashville, and I just loved him. But at some point when he was winning everything, you find yourself pulling for other people.

There's a system in place in Nashville, and for a long time, I was trapped in this idea that the only way to do it was to come to town, get a record deal, and do it the way they say. And that system works. But it caters to a specific kind of artist, and I didn't necessarily fit that mold.

One of the great reasons to be in Nashville is, you get guys like Shane McAnally to write songs with.

I didn't move to Nashville with any inkling or dreams of getting a record deal. I didn't have those stars in my eyes. I just wanted to take a break, relax, and figure out songwriting.

If you had told me when I was starting out that I would be coming down to Nashville, kind of weaving in and out of the country scene, I never would've thought that in a million years.

I probably had the most fun recording For Richer For Poorer in Nashville.

The Hank Williams Syndrome: Come to Nashville, write some good songs, cut some hit records, make money, take all the drugs you can and drink all you can, become a wild man and all of a sudden die.

When I got into the Nashville scene, with the Ross Coppermans and Zach Kales and Jon Nites and Nicolle Galyons, all these people who have No. 1 hits with huge celebrities, they were able to show me creative ways and right ways of formulating songs.

Man, I live in Nashville. I know how good other songwriters and singers are around here. There's a wealth of talent in this town, not to mention the people who shoot in for a week or two to try their hand on lower Broad or the other venues around town.

I went to L.A. to be Brad Pitt; now I just want to be Gene Hackman. I came to Nashville to be Kenny Chesney. I'd be very fortunate to be George Strait.

I love the story of the guy coming to Nashville and then kind of getting set down and told, 'This is how the town works,' which, I've totally been there. But the coolest thing about 'Out of Style' is it's a song within a song.

Country music is who I really, really am deeply.

I came to Nashville in the early '90s, and I thought, 'OK, enough is enough. I write songs; I just don't have the backbone to show it to anybody. I want to go to Nashville and learn how to properly write a song.'

When I started out, I was what they called corny. After a week in Nashville they were calling me hillbilly.

When I left college, it broke my mom's heart, but I knew I had to be in Nashville. I knew that was the place you had to be in to become a better songwriter, and that's what I wanted to move there for and to ultimately get a record deal.

I feel like I live in my own little world, to be honest. I mean, I love my record, but I don't feel tied to it. I sort of created my own little universe in the studio, and that's why all of those musicians who made a living in the Nashville music scene loved coming over to my place so much.

If you can't play guitar and sing in Nashville, you might as well just be a construction worker.

I think the defining moment in my career is the day that I moved to Nashville - September 1, 2001. That's the biggest step to getting here is making that move. Anything that happens, the wonderful opportunities that happen to you, can't happen until you make that move.

I will write a verse or a story and bring it into a songwriting session, because that's what's big in Nashville - the collaborative part of songwriting.

I thought, when I came to Nashville, I was going to hook up with some of the top country writers in town and write some country tunes.

I moved to Nashville at 17 to make music, and since then I've put everything I have into doing it right.