My dad had an old guitar and he showed me two or three chords, so I practiced them and sang to try to emulate my cowboy heroes Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Then, when I was about ten or 11, I learned that you could play "up the neck", so that kept me busy for another couple of years.

I started playing the bass strings as they made more impact--especially when amplified--but you had to have a strong riff or melody, and that's what I did. And I played it with authority and feeling.

Hank Williams was my mentor, really. He said to get your own style and do it with authority. Some people didn't get it, but I understood what he was getting at.

[on Hank Garland] He'd work a country session for Stonewall Jackson during the daytime, then go out and play astounding jazz in a club at night. And he wrote one of the all-time great country instrumentals with "Sugarfoot Rag". That's the first I heard of him: playing "Sugarfoot Rag" on the Opry, just driving the folks wild.