Music means family
One song popped in my head: Proud Mary. I love that song. Music has memories. I remember being in the farm shop, working on something that was broken with my family: my father, my uncle, my grandmother, all of us would work on it and we’d make a new implement in the shop. For me it’s a family thing, even though not all of my family is musical. We were listening to the radio, and Proud Mary was on. My uncle passed away tragically when I was 17—he was like my older brother. A lot of the music he listened to is now stuff that I sing. I didn’t sing publicly until I turned 52. I used to sing to all the animals on the farm, but not in front of witnesses. But then I decided, “What am I afraid of?” I’m surprised by how much fun it is, getting older. It’s like you get another chance. Your kids are gone, and you still have the ability to do many things. It’s a lot of fun. So singing and songwriting are things I do now that I never did before.