Convicts Are The Best Audience I Ever

Death And Hell Are Never Full, And Neither Are Men's Eyes.

The Beer And The Wurst Were Wonderful, But I Was Dying To Be Back In The South, Where The Livin' Was Easy, Where The Fish Were Jumpin', Where The Cotton Grew High.

My Mother Was Determined That I Was Going To Leave The Farm And Do Well In Life. And She Thought With The Gift, I Might Be Able To Do That. So She Took In Washing. She Got A Washing Machine In 1942 As Soon As We Got Electricity And She Took In Washing. She Washed The Schoolteacher's Clothes And Anybody She Could And Sent Me For Singing Lessons For $3 Per Lesson.

There's A Lot Of Things Blamed On Me That Never Happened. But Then, There's A Lot Of Things That I Did That I Never Got Caught At.

Gospel Music Was The Thing That Inspired Me As A Child Growing Up On A Cotton Farm, Where Work Was Drudgery And It Was So Hard That When I Was In The Field I Sang All The Time. Usually Gospel Songs Because They Lifted Me Up Above That Black Dirt.