I feel a lot of cities are like, you go and you are trying to do your art, and there are so many other artists there who are so brilliant. And it's kind of like they stomp on the scene, and they are like, "You're not already Picasso? Get the hell out of here!" And Memphis is like, "Well, you'll get there one day!"
When I talk about music in Memphis, it's a place you can go if you are a beginning artist or anywhere in your career, and you can incubate.
If you're going to be stuck somewhere forever, you might as well be around good people!
Memphis held onto me until I was far enough along in my art and then it let me go.
When I was a kid, I always wanted to go to Europe, to go to Africa, to go traveling.
The point is to raise your voice and be heard to God. You really are just celebrating being in the presence of other people that believe the same things you believe.
I think it's funny how people get confused when they think about church music, because a lot of times there is a soloist who stands out, but my church wasn't like that at all.
If my parents hadn't been made to do that from living in the Bible Belt, maybe it wouldn't be something that matters to me - maybe I wouldn't even know how to talk to God.
I create my own reality. And I'm not the only one. My reality is becoming more prominent.
I can't believe the ignorance there, so I don't allow it to affect my life, I don't allow it to come into my zone, and it's not in my world, really.
Even from when I was in grade school or church or wherever, I was always like: we're one, and we should respect each other and grow as one. And respect each other's diversity, of course.
I've always kind of been in the middle of every room, trying to get people together, no matter what color they were.
As a woman especially I've found a lot of freedom in music.
My challenges have not been around music. My hardest thing in music was just sitting down and teaching myself how to play and believing in myself.
I mean, roots musicians - we can get old, you know? We can get up there and wear overalls and deliver the songs, we don't have to look any certain way.
Whatever people are doing, they're probably going to be doing it five years from now. You have your banker, your general store runner, the principal of the school, and things of that sort. It's nice to see that, and to get old with other people.
