Quotes by Mel Tillis

• You have to insulate yourself - I'm talking about from everything, people can be talking to you and you won't hear 'em - that's how you write a song. And I haven't been able to do that over here 'cause I'm so busy and then, when I am off, I want to get away from music.
• I'll do about 13 shows in Branson next year, and I'll be performing at the Grand Palace.
• I'm gonna do between 75 and 100 dates. A lot of it will be in Laughlin, Nevada; I'll be there for two weeks. And I'll work some casinos here and there, and the fair dates.
• I'm not retiring.
• No, my son's a songwriter and he does that.
• And then, when I started to school, I found out I couldn't talk.
• Or in the early days we didn't have the bus, we had a station wagon.
• Well, you know, back then there wasn't many albums, it was the singles. You sold singles.
• You know, being an entertainer is partly being on the road, and a lot of your songs come from the road.
• You know, it comes from my mother's side of the family. She had seven sisters and one brother, and all of them could play instruments. I suppose I picked it up from that.
• I remember li'l ol' Hank Jr. - he was just a baby back in them days, you know - but he used to hang around. His mama would bring him around. He was just a natural.
• Well, no, you can prepare it all you want, but I'd still stutter.
• But Patsy, she was a great, great girl. And Brenda Lee is a wonderful person, and her mama Grace. I've known those folks for years and years and years.
• But now I've been in the arena for 47 years and I stutter less today than I did in those days.
• But in those days - in the mid-'50s, early '60s - there was less than 300 radio stations that were playing country music and a lot of that wasn't full time.
• But if you put a script up in front of me to read, or a cue card, I couldn't do it without stuttering.
• But I've got a lot of ideas, I bought me a ranch in Florida and I still have my farm in Ashland City, Tennessee so I'm gonna spend a little time at each one of those places and you'll probably hear some more songs out of me.
• And they turned around and leased it to The Assembly Of God Churches - their headquarters are in Springfield, Missouri. They leased it to them for the first year. Then, after the first year, they will donate it to the church.
• And you know, we'd go to church. We were Baptists. And every now and then there'd be a tent would set up, and it was the Holiness folks. And we liked their music.
• And my daddy could play a harmonica and also the guitar, so I guess I got a little bit from both of 'em, but I think mostly from my mother's side of the family.
• And I had to take care of a little dog too named Suzy. It was the promoter's wife's - Judy Lynn's - it was her dog. And one of my duties going on the tour was to take care of it.
• And I got to know Red Foley well. And I got to know Lefty really well, he was a great guy.
• And I began to tell little anecdotes that had happened to me, and people would laugh. And I began to like that, you know. But I knew that, 'cause I'd do that in school, but I wouldn't do it out there in front of all them people.
• I didn't get to meet Hank Williams. I was in the Air Force on Okinawa when he passed away.