[his last comment to friend Buddy Holly] Hope your darn ole
plane crashes.
[about his "outlaw" image] It was a good marketing tool. In a
way, I am that way. You start messing with my music, I get mean. As
long as you are honest and up front with me, I will be the same with
you. But I still do things my way.
There's always one more way to do something - your way.
Some people have their music. My music has me.
[1984, in an interview in the CMA's "Close Up" magazine] I
did more drugs than anybody you ever saw in your life.
I had to change the way I eat. Smoking is what caused my problem. I smoked for 41 years, and I was smoking five and six packs a day in the last few years.