Tragedy in life normally comes with betrayal and compromise, and trading on your integrity and not having dignity in life. That's really where failure comes.
Roy Acuff's from Maynardville, and that's where a lot of my family's from. So he's, I've been told, a distant cousin, as well.
When I was nine years old, my family lost our home, and the six of us moved into my grandparents' converted garage.
I keep everything that is most important to me close to me: my family, my bible, my X-Box - just kidding.
It's the boring things that mean a lot to me. I enjoy taking my sisters to eat. Or sitting watching TV with my family.
We went to church every Sunday. When I was a kid, the only time I sang was around my family.
But back then the thing that saved me was the music, and it's certainly the music that saves me now. The music, my family and my friends and everybody around me.
Dummy Dum Dum was my nickname for years at school. I was the strange one of the family, the one who couldn't remember his name.
My family is part Creole, and we're Indian, and we're also very, very black. My father was so black, he was blue.
Cancer affects so many people, and even if it hasn't affected someone in your family then you know someone who has had it.
I get my voice from my mother's side of the family. My mother and my grandmother both had strong voices.
I don't like the royal family, I don't like the establishment, I don't like the civil service.
I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.
My family are too grounded, and I will go home to visit. I always need my dose of Liverpool to keep me grounded.
My mum's family are from Blaenau Ffestiniog, the slate town. My grandfather was Elis Humphreys Roberts, so that's quite Welsh isn't it?
You can't help but have your children and your family be part of what you dream about when you dream up a song.
We come in many different shapes and sizes, and we need to support each other and our differences. Our beauty is in our differences.
I'm proud that today, at 43 years old, I've come to value the aging process and focus on inner rather than outer beauty.
The spirit of L.A. is untamed wilderness. It's earthquakes and wildfires and oceans and mountain lions and fog. There's great physical beauty.
What I look for in a role is the physical. But what's the journey emotionally? Can I take this person who is this archetypal tough guy and find the beauty?
Beauty can make you powerful in a way that isn't good for you. Being OK is better for the person I have become.
