“I knew 'Strangers in the Night' was a hit when we recorded it, ... We did it live in the studio with the whole orchestra. ... From doing all those sessions, I learned what I wanted to have when I made my own records.”
“I had Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard on my show long before the general public caught up to them, ... I also had Eric Clapton and Cream on the program. They were real loud.”
“There we were, a musician and a quarterback acting in a Hollywood movie. Neither one of us had acted before - and our records are still clean, ... I didn't take to acting.”
“I was in Studio 3 cutting a song with, I think, the Irish Rovers, ... I saw a record on the wall in the hall by Johnny Rivers. It had this song 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix.' And that made me curious. I wondered if it was about the city or the bird. So I listened to it, and I cried because it made me homesick. And if you can cry to Johnny Rivers, you know that's a good song. I recorded it the next day. And lo and behold it was one of the biggest records I ever had.”
“Yeah, I've met real Wichita linemen before, ... They gave a pair of boots and climbing hooks that they use to climb poles. They really liked that song.”
“John Wayne's 9-year-old daughter really loved my show, and she wanted to meet me, ... So Duke got in his station wagon and drove down to the studio one day. That's how we met. ... He's the one who got me the part (in 'True Grit').”
