It’s a long trip - from the top of the Smoky Mountains to the top of the World. But somehow God saw fit for me to make it.
Hey there, Substackers! I’m here and ready to share stories and be inspired by all you creative people out there. I have some behind the scenes video from my interviews when working on putting together my new book. I’ve never shared these anywhere before so you get them first!
“When I’m out on stage and I see all the people out in the audience, I feel every one of them.
I have always said that I see somebody I love, somebody in my family in almost every face out there.
Someone I know that’s worked hard, saved up their money to come and see me.
Me being brought up hard, knowing how hard it is to even earn a dollar to even get by with the things you really need to provide for, and then to take some extra money and come to see me.
I’ve often joked about where I think people don’t come to see me be me. They come to see me be them. Meaning that I am a writer that writes their stories.
I feel for them because I am who they are. I grew up that way.
I know what it’s like to be poor. I know what it’s like to live in the mountains.
I know what it’s like to struggle and work for a living.
I’ve seen it all my life. I’ve been doing it all my life. I just get paid a little more than most these days.
Work is work, whether you’re bending your back to do it or bending your mind to do it. I just want people to come to my shows and see somebody that had a dream, knew they had to work for it.
Dreams don’t just come true. That’s a wish.
You know, wishes don’t come true either, unless you work them.
So I just want people to come and say, well, I can sit here right now and look up there and see myself. I can see my kids. I can see what can happen in our great Country of America coming from rags to riches so to speak. Coming from the Smoky Mountains.
And it’s a long trip from the top of the Smoky Mountains to the top of the world.
But somehow God saw fit for me to make it and I’ve always wanted to do that not just for myself but for my family and for the fans. That community that they talk about that is the country music community. Just people that love music and going out to concerts to really just take their minds off of their mundane jobs for a minute.
So the fact that they take time to spend money on me, to come see me, I’m going to give it everything I’ve got to make them happy.”
Thank you for watching! Get more stories in my book, Star of the Show: My Life On Stage, the final edition in the trilogy of books on my life and career here.
