Top 55 Marty Stuart Quotes

One thing that I love about country music, probably more so than any other culture – maybe the blues rivals it – there are so many American folk heroes. There’s the Coal Miner‘s Daughter, the Man in Black, the Red-Headed Stranger, and on and on.

I think the way country music is set up, we all came from a family background.

The only two jobs I ever had were with Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash.

Well, the things that country music is parodied for sometimes – trains, drinking, sin, cheating, redemption, jailhouses, rambling, hoboing, on and on, all those things – according to The New York Times, every one of those subject matters is still relevant.

I loved the Rolling Stones. I heard a little bit of country music creeping around the edges of some of their songs. Being a Mississippi kid, I could feel they had done their homework, even when I was a little boy. I could feel the Delta blues influence in a lot of their work.

I don’t know how it got around that I play a lot of instruments. I really don’t. I play the guitar and the mandolin.

I’ve always been a sucker for a truck driving song.

Every time I hear a Garth Brooks record I tend to want to hear James Taylor.

Growing up in the Sixties, whether it was the Batmobile or the costumes Porter Wagoner wore or the music that came from there, California was the home of what a friend of mine calls ‘custom culture.’ It seemed like the promised land.

As big as the industry is now and as gargantuan and stretched out with as many buses and trucks as there are now, it is still a big old dysfunctional family in my mind.

I’ve been promoting the idea of a Jimmie Rodgers documentary for years.

Sun Studios was where so much of American music exploded from.

More than anybody in the music industry, the Staple Singers were like family to me.

One of the most quotable guys ever in country music was Grandpa Jones.

He is irreplaceable. Even in death I have no doubt that Johnny Cash will continue to live on as an inspiration to musicians and songwriters and all of America.

I wish I could have been in the control room at Capitol Studio A listening to the playback of ‘Wichita Lineman’ the first time it came into the atmosphere. It must have been a perfect moment in time.

People shouldn’t be punished for their wisdom.

To me, all music that is made under the umbrella of the United States of America is Americana music.

I’m always on the prowl for the kinds of recordings that can inspire and potentially make a difference.

I went out on the road when I was 12 years old, playing with the Sullivan Family Gospel Singers. That was the summer of 1972. We played Pentecostal churches, camp meetings, George Wallace campaign rallies and bluegrass festivals. As a kid, I had grown up watching quartets that were very entertaining.

There was a junk store in Nashville on 8th Avenue, where I bought Patsy Cline’s train case for $75.

My mother named me for Marty Robbins.

When country music is doing its job, it reports on the good, bad and indifferent of our human condition.

There wasn’t really a lot of difference from a Mississippi perspective between what Elvis did on ‘Mystery Train’ or ‘Milkcow Blues’ or what Bill Monroe was playing or what Flatt and Scruggs was playing; it was rock ‘n’ roll to me.

Rock ‘n’ roll entertained my head but there was something about country music that touched my heart.

Crazy Arms‘ is one of those songs that can get crushed beneath its own weight. It’s kind of like ‘Orange Blossom Special‘ or ‘Rocky Top‘ or ‘Crazy.’ But when you go back to the original interpretation, you hear it in a new way.

The four things a hillbilly singer needs are a Cadillac, a Nudie suit, the right hairdo, and a pair of pointy-toed boots.

From the first time I played with Lester Flatt, I sensed an extreme amount of history around me.

Nobody in my school knew who Bill Monroe was, or Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and barely Johnny Cash. Nobody spoke that language. I proceeded to get myself kicked out.

It’s hard for a country performer to make a living in a Beatles society.

Well, it’s hard not to love Hank Williams!

Merle Haggard once said, ‘I’m really mad at Glen Campbell because he’s the most talented human being in the world.’ That kind of summed it up. Merle didn’t miss!

There’s every other guitar player and then there’s Chet. He transcended musical boundaries for more than fifty years. God only lays Chet Atkins on you once in a lifetime.

Country music has taken so many forms, and I’ve always contended that it does not matter if the casual listener falls in love with country music through Florida Georgia Line, Taylor Swift, Old Crow Medicine Show or whomever – just get in and start digging!

When I was 5 years old, I got my first record. It was ‘Flatt & Scruggs’ Greatest Hits.’ The second was ‘The Fabulous Johnny Cash.’

Some things you can never get back.

I’ve always loved gospel music. Being raised in Mississippi, it was kind of part of the atmosphere down there.

Country music as a genre, as an art form, is just as valid out there in the pantheon of the arts as classical, jazz, ballet, whatever.

We need a new Hank Williams, a new Jimmy Webb. We need new writers, a new Tom Petty. We need people that write what they feel and what they see – things that are relevant.

We need all those divisions of country music, firing on all cylinders.

Well, my heart finally found a home when I married Connie Smith, and I was tired of feeling bad. And it was time to grow up and get on with life.

Well, I was dedicated to God before I was born by Momma and Daddy, and I was raised in a very traditional Southern Baptist home.

I can’t remember when I didn’t have an instrument around.

The history of country music is as important as any other art form.

I swear, there is Capitol Studios and then there’s every other studio on the planet Earth. It is the ultimate, paramount of sound in the United States of America. It is a magical place.

After something has run its course, you either become a parody and keep doing it, or tear it down and know the truth about it, warts and all.

I’ve always been a collector at heart.

In the middle of Mississippi, so many kinds of music came, but it was Nashville and country music that pulled my heart.

My local radio station, WHOC, Philadelphia, Mississippi – ‘1490 on your radio dial, a thousand watts of pure pleasure‘ – it was a beautiful station. And I loved everything I heard. But it was country music that touched my heart.

There’s something cool about playing ‘Tempted‘ and then picking up the mandolin and playing ‘Dark as a Dungeon‘ and standing on the classics. It’s nice to just let soul rule.

I hate labels.

Well, being from Mississippi, the church house is kind of the common denominator. It was for me growing up. Like so many public performers, that was the first place I was ever invited to sing.

I make no apology about being a hillbilly.

I saw footage of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley just hanging out together in Memphis when they were young guys getting started at Sun, listening to records together. That was beautiful to me.

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