Keith Whitley

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“I don't remember ever not singing. It's just as natural as breathing for me.”

“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.”

“It's not so uncommon for me to get so wrapped up in a song that I cry several times when I sing them. That's the difference between my music and some of the other folks.”

“We had sold a lot of copies of the 'Miami' album without being racked by some of the big distributors.”

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

“I learned to do things the way the old-timers did.”

“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.”

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

“Everyone falls in love, everyone gets their heart broken.”

“You may not hear much bluegrass on the surface of my music, but I feel the emotion I put in a song comes from bluegrass. Bluegrass taught me to interpret a song, not just sing it.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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