"Country music has always been about as close to R&B as you can possibly get. We're storytellers." — Lionel Richie

I am a country boy and proud of it.

I just like people. I'll hold a conversation at a gas station. It's not about the fame and the fortune, I just like people.

I want to let everybody know that I'm from there, and country is Tuskegee. Or should I say rather, my country is Tuskegee. I was born and raised there, it's not just someplace I passed through one day.

Your kids can say some cruel things to you at times. For example, Nicole, Miles and Sofie are standing there in the room and I'm dressed to kill in my own mind. They'll say to me, 'Dad, you're not going out there looking like that are you?' If that doesn't kill a star, I don't know what does!