Ralph Stanley Quotations

I tell them, 'I think it's quite hot.' They call it a trend, but if it is a trend it's been going for longer than I can remember. It's the music I grew up on as a country boy, and there's nothing else like it. It's nice to see the city folk are catching up.

I've always called my music old time mountain music or old time country music. I've never really called my music bluegrass.

It's one of the best things that ever happened to me, even if it was late.

It sort of changed everything around for me,

I'm booked solid for this year, and I'll just be travelling and playing like always the rest of the year. I've turned down twenty-seven bluegrass festivals this year, and it's been standing room only everywhere we go. I can only speak for myself, but it's the best it's ever been for me. I've been blessed with a lot of good health. I get my rest and sit back a little. I think I've got one of the best, if not the best, bands I've ever had.

I'm a member of the Primitive Baptist Church, and they will buy every CD that I have released, but they don't me just to bring the instruments much into the church.

My father was a logger. He cut timber and hauled it out of the woods and had a sawmill. They sawed it into lumber. And, you know, the mines needed things they call timbers and collars and so forth, and they used collars on the railroad track that they put the rails on. And he - that was his occupation, just a sawmill man and a logger.

You give out the words and then sing them. You give out the words, you know, and the people can hear what you're giving out, and they sing that song or that line and they do the same thing again.

My first banjo? My mother's sister, my aunt, lived about a mile from where we did, and she raised some hogs. And she had - her - the hog - the mother - they called the mother a sow - of a hog. And she had some pigs. Well, the pigs were real pretty, and I was going to high school and I was taking agriculture in school. And I sort of got a notion that I'd like to do that, raise some hogs. And so my aunt had this old banjo, and my mother told me, said, which do you want, the pig or a banjo? And each one of them's $5 each. I said, I'll just take the banjo.

I am a man of constant sorrow. I've seen trouble all my days.

I think - I really think my voice has gotten better in the last two or three years. I don't know why. I've been doing a lot of - a lot more lead singing, and everybody tells me that my voice was better than ever and I agree with them. Maybe I've learned to do more with it. I don't know what.

I don't - I don't like that style, myself. I never did like Elvis's singing, but there was millions that did.

I live about six miles from where I was born and raised.

My mother played a little bit of the old time clawhammer. She tuned the banjo up and picked one tune for me, and it just become natural to me. When she picked it, I just started and picked it, too.

I guess the first time I played around Washington, D.C. was at a place called The Famous. That was the first place I played, I believe.

I always enjoyed playing around Washington, because we always have a good crowd. I've never had a bad crowd in this vicinity from here [Alexandria], up to Washington and on to right around Baltimore. They've been some good fans.

[Regarding President Obama] Yeah, yeah, yeah, I talked to him. I sorta, I guess, helped him get elected.

I still go to that church now, and they don't believe in instruments in the church. But, my brothers and sisters in the church will listen to me. They will come out to a place to see me play. They will buy all of my records and everything, but they don't believe in bringing that instrument in the church. But, they'll come and watch me somewhere else. Why that is, I don't know.

I think Bob [Dylan] told me that he turned down twenty interviews that year, and I was the only one that he sat down and did an interview with. And, he said that it was one of his highlights, and it was one of my highlights. And, I was very glad to talk with Bob. I found out that he was a good fan of mine, and that tickled me.

I have plenty of good friends that I think the world of - and Bob [Dylan] is one of them, and I like his music - but with some others... their music I just don't care too much about all of it. Some of it I like.

You know, if you use instrument, why, you have to stay on perfect time - timing. And if you do a cappella - I'm so bad, just wonder, you know, maybe I'll sing one verse this way and one verse another. And if you're doing it a capella, you don't have to keep any time. You can just go out as far as you want to with it.

I grew up down in the hills of Virginia. I can be in Kentucky in 20 minutes, Tennessee in 20 minutes or in the state of West Virginia in 20 minutes. And it's down in the Appalachian Mountains, down there. And it's sort of a poorer country. Most of the livelihood is coal mining and logging, working in the woods and things like that. Most people has a hard life down that way.

Speaking of WAMU, [bluegrass and old time music DJ] Ray Davis did a lot of work there. I've know Ray, I guess for 50 years - 40, or 50 years. And, he plays a lot of my records.

I don't listen to the radio too much, but usually I listen to Stanley Brothers and Ralph Stanley more than I do anybody!

I believe in my music.

No pleasure here on Earth I find. For in this world, I'm bound to ramble.

I've done it all. I'm thankful and proud of what I've accomplished in my life. I hope to keep doing it.

Well, I don't let anyone record with me that is not a fan of mine or believe in my music. Everybody that records for me, from Bob Dylan on down to George Jones, everybody loves me and my music, and I knew they would do their best that they could do, and they did. I didn't doubt them a bit. There's some country people that I wouldn't want, which didn't record with me.

The soundtrack of O Brother is the most publicity I've gotten. I don't feel that I have lost any of my old fans, but I have gained new ones.

I don't see any harm in brining an instrument into the church itself.

I like for it to be mountain music or old-time country music or traditional bluegrass. Either one will fit me. It's traditional, basically.

I would have quit before I went rock-n-roll. I know one way, and that's natural, and when I can't make it, I'll come home and stay. I believe in my music.

I'm thankful that I have lived long enough to become a legend, and I hope I deserve it.