Ralph Stanley

“Bluegrass is just a name. It's really mountain music. It's the music I grew up on.”

“That high lonesome sound, it's a sound from the mountains, a sound from the heart.”

“I don't want to sound like nobody else.”

“I've tried to keep the old-timey sound alive.”

“I don't play to the crowd; I play to myself. And if I'm enjoying it, the crowd will, too.”

“If you can't feel the music, you can't play it.”

“I want to be remembered as a person who loved people and helped people.”

“A song is a story in music.”

“God gave me a voice. I think he wanted me to use it.”

“My music is about life and death, and it's about the Lord.”

“I think that's what has kept me going all these years: I've always been myself.”

“When I go on stage, I feel like I'm at home.”

“The Clinch Mountains. That's my home. I'll never leave it.”

“I don't think I've ever been a big-time star. I've always been a grassroots person.”