'Eyes Wide Open' took shape from two real life events straight from my own past. One was the sad suicide of my young nephew a troubled kid who was found at the bottom of a landmark cliff in central California. The second was a chance encounter forty years ago with none other than ahem Charles Manson!

You see so many artists who are so talented end up living sad empty lives. This industry takes so much out of you that without the accountability and leaving God in the center you can be left so empty and void.

I try to make an album that reflects what I love about country music. It's not just all about happy parties all the time. There are some sad songs.

The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president I'll kill myself. All we need is another liar... I think he'd like to run but it would be a sad day for the country if he does.

It's a sad commentary when I have to say that sometimes in our country we are real sensitive to race.

You've got a beautiful country with so many beautiful people and so many beautiful things happening and stuff like that lets it down. I feel sad for them.

Saturdays and Sundays America in the year 2009 does not in some ways differ significantly from the country that existed almost 50 years ago. This is truly sad.

I've traveled around the country and I read local newspapers and all of that and it's a sad sad thing to go from city to city and see the small newspapers and they're tiny. They're tiny not only in size but also in scope.

I have had stalkers over the years. The police deal with it but it is very scary. One man kept turning up where we filmed 'Countdown in Leeds ' which was scary. It was sad as he'd been sectioned and thought I was talking to him through the TV.

You had to be into sport and sad to say I'm a traitor to my country because I don't have a sporting bone in my body.