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The people on my mum’s side of the family are atheist intellectuals who are ueber-proper. My dad’s side of the family are missionaries who are more comfortable sitting around in sweatpants than they are in a five-star restaurant. But those two influences converged in my life.
I recruited my dad to be my bass player and fired him on several occasions. He stayed on as a bus driver.
There was nothing more important I could do than be supportive as a dad.
Whenever I did a good performance, my Dad and my uncles, who were rabid movie fans, took me to the movies. There began my underlying love affair with film.
My dad was a master butcher and I trained to be a butcher when I left school. I didn’t enjoy it at the time but I love cooking now, so perhaps I would have been a chef.
I started off playing the clarinet, after I was inspired by listening to my dad’s Benny Goodman records.
I absolutely love working with my dad because there is such an ease about it, and I also love his company.
I went and took golf lessons so Dad would let me play with him. I was just terrible… but I was able to have a wonderful time just walking around with Dad. I can see the real pleasure of that game.
I look at my little girl and I wonder what she’s going to be and what she’s going to do and what is it that leads girls certain directions in life. I think a lot of that goes back to what kind of father they had, and so it makes me want to be the best dad I can possibly be.
I had always loved music. I grew up listening to classic country, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard. My dad loved Vern Gosdin and Keith Whitley. So I kept going to class and started getting totally into playing guitar and teaching myself these songs.