23 George Strait Quotes To Tip Your Hat To

George Strait, born May 18, 1952 is an acclaimed American country music singer and songwriter with highly respectable careers as an actor and a music producer as well. Strait is acknowledged as leading the charge for popularizing the neo-traditional country style throughout the 1980s. You wouldn’t be hard-pressed to find plenty of folks that tip their hats to George Strait for maintaining that iconic “cowboy image” amidst a Nashville-based music industry that was being swarmed by numerous country pop crossover artists. George Strait has rightfully earned himself the esteemed title of being the “King of Country Music.” We’ll take a look at some of the king of country music’s most memorable quotes to date.

1. On building a legacy

“I want to reach the point where people hear my name and immediately think of real country music.”

2. On remaining humble with the fame

“You know, legends are people like Haggard and Jones and Wills and Sinatra. Those people are legends. I’m just a young buck out here trying to keep in that same circle with the rest of ’em.”

3. On setting goals

“If you start out trying to achieve a specific thing – like doing stadium shows or going into the studio and doing an album – the end result is what counts.”

4. On the value of giving it your best

“If it’s a good song and it fits me, that’s what I’m going to do, I’m not out there trying to change the world. I’m just out there trying to sing country music the best way I can.”

5. On continuing to look for new material

“I just continue to look for different material, great material, as good as I can find, and try to go in there and do as good a job as I can do in making it a record. That’s all you can expect. That’s all that you can do.”

6. On stopping playing at clubs

“I didn’t want to be 40 or 50 years old and still playing clubs, I didn’t feel like I was making any progress, and I actually gave the band notice at one point. I began to have doubts about my abilities.”

7. On leaning on great songwriters

“I’m always looking for great songs, and not being much of a songwriter, I depend on great songwriters to send them to me. I go through tons of stuff, and sometimes you just find material that kind of fits and becomes something special.”

8. On avoiding interviews

“I used to do a lot of interviews in the early ’80s, when my career started, but it came to a point when I decided I didn’t want to talk anymore, and people kind of understood that and left me alone.”

9. On Frank Sinatra

“Sinatra, in my opinion, is possibly the greatest male singer of all time.”

10. On traditional country music

“You know, traditional country music is something that’s going to be around forever. I’m not worried about it.”

11. On the reality of touring

“I don’t mind traveling that much when I can go somewhere and stay there for a while, but touring is different. You rarely see anything. You get there early in the morning and you’re resting all day, and you go in and do a sound check, and you do the show, and then bam you’re gone.”

12. On the song “El Rey”

“I love the song ‘El Rey.’ And for years, I never knew what the song was totally about. It was something new for me. I’d never sung a song in Spanish before. Then I got the translation and saw what a really cool song it was.”

13. On the joy of walking onstage

“I always enjoy it when I walk on stage. There were some times when I was working so much in the ’80s, and I felt really burnt-out. But I’d be up there singing and not be 10,000 million miles away, you know, just opening my mouth and the words coming out.”

14. On his gratitude for singing

“I’ve been blessed with the ability to sing, and that has taken me so many places I never would have gone otherwise.”

15. On putting together an album

“When I think about putting together an album, the process of listening to hundreds of songs each time and picking out the best 10 or so that will go on the record, it really sinks in as to just how many songs I’ve listened to all these years.”

16. On fishing

“I love to fish. You can go hours without anything happening, and all of a sudden a big blue marlin comes into the spread and it’s cockpit chaos. My dream is to catch a grander, a 1,000 pounder.”

17. On finding the best records

“I’ve just tried for all of these years to find the best records, the best songs that I could find that fit me, and I’ve had great people to work with all these years.”

18. On the importance of taking breaks

“We work hard when we’re in the studio, but then when we take our breaks, we walk outside and look around.”

19. On balancing work and life

“You’ve got to keep the stage world and your real world separated or you’re headed for trouble.”

20. On his love for the outdoors

“Country music is important to me, and I love it, but it’s not my whole life. I like to be outdoors, I like to hunt, I like to fish, I like to play golf.”

21. On life’s wonders

“Life isn’t about the breathes you take, it’s the moments that take your breathe away.”

22. On appreciating a song’s melody

“I think the melody is the first time I hear in a song and if I like the melody, then I’ll pay closer attention to the lyrics.”

23. On his love for hunting

“I spend most of hunting season at the ranch. We all love to hunt whitetails, and we have a pretty good supply in South Texas. I also love to hunt elk in Arizona, mule deer in Utah, and I’ve been to Canada to hunt caribou.”