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Sturgill Simpson Quotes

Powerful Sturgill Simpson for Daily Growth

It's a long road, so we are just trying to stay focused and grounded and keep moving forward. I'll take it, though.

- Sturgill Simpson

Forward, Long Road, Though

Willie Nelson, Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard and Keith Whitley - guys like that were huge influences.

- Sturgill Simpson

Like, Willie, Willie Nelson, None

Even with most finite planning, you never know what the final result will reveal itself to be until it's staring back at you.

- Sturgill Simpson

Will, Back, Reveal, Finite

Anytime I ever have met someone that was very angry or full of negativity, nine times out of ten, if you really take a good look at that person's life, there's probably not a whole lot of love going on there.

- Sturgill Simpson

Love, Nine, Very, Anytime

I worked for Union Pacific. I started out as a conductor at an intermodal switching facility outside of Salt Lake City. We'd pull in trains from all over the country, break them apart, consolidate the freight, and build other trains. It was great until I screwed up and took a management position. Then it became no fun very quickly.

- Sturgill Simpson

Country, Switching, Became, Freight

Looking back on it, now I can identify the points in my life when I wasn't playing, and music - and didn't have that outlet - those were the points when I was most unguided and self destructive because I didn't have that channel to get those energies out. I'm a much healthier person when I play music.

- Sturgill Simpson

Looking Back, My Life, Play, Energies

I never really had any grand aspirations of mainstream country success because I know what that entails, and I'd probably be too much trouble for people to work with. If I can just reach the point where I can get 200 or 300 people in small clubs and I'm carving out enough money to pay my bills, then I'm the happiest guy I know.

- Sturgill Simpson

Small, Country, Entails, Aspirations

I don't pretend to be an astrophysicist or anything, even though I do read about certain things like metaphysics and cosmology that I've always just been really interested in. I don't pretend to be able to sit down and pontificate on any of these subjects.

- Sturgill Simpson

Been, Pretend, About, Cosmology

The only way I'm going to support my family is to tour. I love playing, don't get me wrong. That 90 minutes every night, that's free. We get paid to travel. But every night, I have to get myself locked in. There are a thousand people that don't want to be disappointed, because they have a lot of expectations.

- Sturgill Simpson

Love, 90 Minutes, Lot, Locked

I saw Dolly Parton play at the Glastonbury Festival to about 120,000 people. It was an ocean of human beings. I was a mile away from the stage, and I swear to God, I could feel her energy.

- Sturgill Simpson

Play, Away, About, None

You make a little noise, and you can sell out your local hometown club. But then you drive an hour down the road to the next town, and there might be eight people there.

- Sturgill Simpson

Hometown, Next, Town, Down The Road

I just really want to make - to be cliche about it, I want to make pretty music. Like Roy Orbison or Elvis, man. Those guys made beautiful, tender music.

- Sturgill Simpson

Pretty, Tender, Like, Roy

I just can't sit down and write three verses and a chorus and a bridge anymore. It just don't find it inspiring.

- Sturgill Simpson

Down, Anymore, Inspiring, Chorus

Country music especially can get very formulaic - you know, you have to have your verses and a bridge and a chorus, and a lot of the songs are written as just plain and simple poetry on the road.

- Sturgill Simpson

Country Music, Country, Very, Chorus

Let's just cut a live record with three microphones in four days and talk about lizards and aliens. If I had taken that idea to even an independent label, I don't see a label out there that would've said, 'Oh yeah, that sounds great. We know how to market this.'

- Sturgill Simpson

Independent, Idea, Cut, Independent Label

Music Row gets dragged through the dirt, but they're just trying to survive.

- Sturgill Simpson

Music, Survive, Through, To Survive

I want people to focus on listening, not the image. And I want to play to everyone: rednecks, dubstep kids, punk rockers, and people who like as-real-as-it-gets country music.

- Sturgill Simpson

Listening, Play, Image, Rockers

I used to play a lot of electric guitar. I don't really consider myself a guitar player anymore. Then I got really into how the pickups work. And winding and de-winding Telecaster pickups. And then building Telecasters. And I became more fascinated with making them than I was with actually playing them. So it's a slippery slope.

- Sturgill Simpson

Play, Used, Became, Slippery Slope

I'm not meant to sit on the couch and not play music. But I never want to feel like I have to put out a record. I don't want to ever make those records.

- Sturgill Simpson

Play, Like, Meant, Play Music

It's hard enough to sit at a table and talk to most people as it is. But we can go to some town, and there's 300 people we've never met before, and by the third song, we're connecting with everyone in that room.

- Sturgill Simpson

Song, Some, Town, Table

Fewer and fewer bars are doing live music. Instead it's more DJs and dance parties.

- Sturgill Simpson

Doing, More, Fewer, DJs

I'm interested in exploring various forms of newer media that might allow those who otherwise don't listen to country to find and connect with my music.

- Sturgill Simpson

Country, Allow, Otherwise, Forms

I'd love to make short film videos pushing the conventional standards of what a country music video can be.

- Sturgill Simpson

Love, Country Music, Country, Music Video

I knew I wanted to make a concept record in song-cycle form, like my favorite Marvin Gaye records where everything just continuously flows.

- Sturgill Simpson

Records, Like, Knew, None

I knew I loved playing bluegrass, so I'd end up down there on Sunday nights at the bluegrass jam.

- Sturgill Simpson

Down, Knew, Loved Playing, Bluegrass

I grew up listening to everything. I was in rock n' roll bands and punk bands, and I loved bluegrass and country music, too. Then, when I moved to Nashville, I put out a very traditional country record because that's just what you do. I had a bunch of very traditional country songs. Next thing you know, you're a country singer.

- Sturgill Simpson

Country, Next, Very, Bluegrass

Part of me still feels like I've never had the opportunity to properly express all my earliest influences, so for now, I find isolation to be my biggest influence.

- Sturgill Simpson

Like, Still, Feels, Biggest Influence

There have been many socially conscious concept albums. I wanted to make a 'social consciousness' concept album disguised as a country record.

- Sturgill Simpson

Country, Been, Albums, Disguised

Somebody told me once it takes an Americana song five minutes to say what a country song says in three - so I try to write country songs. But really, all good music is just soul music.

- Sturgill Simpson

Soul, Country, Three, Soul Music

My paternal grandfather, when he was in the army in World War II - he was over in the South Pacific, and he thought he was gonna die. And he wrote a letter to my grandmother and their newborn son, thinking he wasn't gonna come home.

- Sturgill Simpson

Thought, Die, South, Pacific

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