Top 25 Keith Whitley Quotes

Even when I was 3 or 4 years old, I’d go out riding in the car with mom and dad, and I already knew all the songs off mom’s Hank Williams and George Jones records by heart. I remember just sitting in the back seat and singing them at the top of my lungs.

I had a rock and roll band as a kid. What I wanted to be in was a country band, but in Sandy Hook, Ky., you’re hard-pressed to find a steel guitar player or a drummer.

It’s funny, but no matter how good an artist is, it’s not until he stands on his own two feet and sticks to his guns that things are going to come together.

We had sold a lot of copies of the ‘Miami’ album without being racked by some of the big distributors.

I thought everybody had to drink to be in this business.

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

We did the ‘L.A. to Miami’ album, with the song ‘Miami, My Amy,’ which really saved my life as far as confidence goes. It gave me a hit. But it wasn’t really what I was about – and I think deep down inside I knew it, even if I didn’t want to face it.

Most of the things I sing in my songs, I’ve lived.

I learned to love bluegrass, but my first love stayed hard country.

The whole deal with my music has been the emotional quality.

I got into bluegrass music when I was 14, as a way to get into a band. My brother and I had a band and our own radio show, and that’s what was popular.

You have to come to terms with yourself as an artist and know what you do best.

I don’t remember ever not wanting to be a country singer. Even as a little kid, that was my dream.

When I came to Nashville, my personal life went to hell.

Lyrics mean a lot to me, and I won’t record a song unless I can feel it. That’s something I learned from Carter Stanley. Even when he wasn’t perfect technically, he got inside a song and sold it emotionally.

My manager, my band members, we’re all good friends. You need that because a lot of times an artist will be so sheltered he will lose touch with what the fans want.

For me, the past isn’t deep and dark; I had a lot of fun I couldn’t have had any other way.

I keep progressing with each record, and that’s a positive sign.

They say country music stands for more than the rural life. It’s about life, period, whether lived in a high-rise or a hollow. I don’t think rural or urban has that much to do with it.

I feel like I have to create the Keith Whitley sound. That doesn’t mean I can’t borrow from the people I grew up listening to, but it doesn’t serve any purpose to sing the same kind of songs they sang. When you do that, it’s going to come out sounding like an imitation, whether it’s meant to or not.

I did so many crazy things while drinking.

On my first album nobody asked me for a lot of advice. It was a producer’s album. We were sent the same type songs with stock melodies. It was my first album and I was happy to do about anything they’d ask me.

Lorrie came along, which is the best thing that ever happened to me. Because of her, I straightened up my life.

I believe in ‘Hard Livin’.’ The song has a lot of potential. I sang it on the road for about a year before I put it on an album. The crowds really seemed to like it.

I was about 14, and I got hooked on the music of the Stanley Brothers.