I wish I could tell you me and my rock band were traveling around, strung out. No, we were a family band. Straight Partridge Family.
Talking with my friends and family every day helps keep me grounded and connected to home. They are the most important things to me.
My family has had a lot of trouble with cancer in particular. There are a lot of great causes out there but for me to pick one I would say anything that is cancer related.
My mum's family would all get together, with guitars, harmonica, mandolins and upright bass and play old blues and folk songs. That was normal to me.
When Nirvana became popular, you could very easily slip and get lost during that storm. I fortunately had really heavy anchors - old friends, family.
My mother was a public school teacher in Virginia, and we didn't have any money, we just survived on happiness, on being a happy family.
I'm from a very politically and socially conscious family. My mother always made a point of making us look at what was going on around us and take stock of our part in it.
If you asked anybody in my family, they would have very stridently proclaimed themselves middle class. My mother and father were separated, so he doesn't count.
I think family is very important in West Virginia and has long been so because the mountains made travel difficult in the past, and family members had to depend on each other.
You know, most people, they want to go to Hollywood. They want to be a star. They want to be a rock star. That thought never entered any of our minds, the Van Halen family.
I guess I'm happy that I'm getting the attention. Otherwise, I'd just be playing in a local bar in front of my family members, and I'm sure they'd get sick of that in no time.
Roy Acuff was a big hero for me, and I was so sad when he passed. It's hard as you get older to lose your friends and family.
I realised when I sang at family parties and Christmases I'd suddenly get everyone's attention, and, being the youngest of three, I thought what a brilliant attention-seeking ploy it was.
Being with my family is very important to me, and touring is very important to me, too, because it's who I am. It's what I do.
I grew up playing music and enjoying good food, friends and family in my own backyard.
My family is involved and my wife Brenda is a great, great writer. She helps me with the writing of everything and also sings with me. I owe a lot to Brenda.
Eventually, when I sell enough units, as they say in the record business, I will stop touring. I'll concentrate on what I like to do... stay in the studio.
I do not think I'm a great talent. I think I'm a medium talent, but I think I understand the business and enjoy the business.
Today the kids that are out now they make a hit record and they put them right out on the stage with 10,000 people out there and they don't know anything about the business yet.
Westerns was why I got into the business. I grew up on a small farm in California and all I ever wanted to do was to play gangsters and cowboys in movies.
As a person, I've been in the business since 1969, and I never remember getting an honest count based upon how many records been sold for Burning Spear.
