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All Quotes by author - Ronnie Dunn
" A great epiphany: I found out that I'm totally confused and I'm good with that. I'm consistently inconsistent. I'm all of the above. I'm OK. I'm a work in progress. That's my next tattoo somewhere. "
Progress
Confused
Good
" Country fans are the most loyal in the world. "
Country
World
Fans
" During college I realized I had a music predisposition and really got involved in it. I started playing bass guitar. That was how I began to fit in. "
Guitar
Got
College
" I carry my own film guys with me now. People think that's a huge expense, but with technology like it is these days, it's not. You can film videos and everything with a Canon Mark II, and shoot a movie. They're doing it for next to nothing, by comparison. I can do ten videos for a project for the price of one mainstream video in the past. "
Me
You
Think
" I do have to step out and take time to let people know that I'm Ronnie Dunn and not Brooks and Dunn. "
Time
Out
Know
" I don't have any hobbies. Music is my hobby. "
Any
Music
Hobby
" I don't walk around with a cowboy hat. I did get a tattoo that says 'cowboy' that's a bit of an over-compensation, probably. "
Walk
Tattoo
Hat
" I feel like I am campaigning door to door. You just can't step out of a band like Brooks & Dunn and assume that it is just going to be business as usual. You have to work it. It does feel like a campaign where you would have Obama, Romney, or Newt beating the bushes right now. That's what I'm having to do. "
Work
Step
I Am
" I get around OK with a toolbox. As a kid, I picked up skills following my dad through the oil fields of Oklahoma and West Texas. My wife Janine is hard to impress, but she does think it's cool when I fix things around the house. "
She
Cool
House
" I grew up in trailer houses in New Mexico, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. "
New Mexico
Mexico
New
" I grew up very modest, and I never forget that. "
Never Forget
Up
Forget
" I'm not a Republican, and I'm not a Democrat. "
Democrat
Republican
" I'm very much involved in art. I started buying art a few years ago and really like the work of T.C. Cannon, who is a native American artist. Then I was introduced to Soviet-era Russian impressionism and started collecting that, especially Gely Korzhev. "
Work
Like
Artist
" In an age of social media and content being key, it's important to change the mold where you have $100,000 to $150,000 for one video. I hired some guys that are young, just out of college, and we used some new, far-less-expensive cameras and technology to make videos. "
Age
Change
Technology
" In the middle of 'Bleed Red' coming out, a huge disproportionate majority of people in radio came to us and asked if they could have 'Cost of Livin' as a single. There was even talk behind closed doors about pulling 'Bleed Red' because they had caught wind and heard 'Cost of Livin'.' We went with that. "
Radio
Wind
Talk
" It's real primal; I just like playing music. "
Playing
Primal
Real
" I was freaking out when Brooks & Dunn were breaking up. I thought 'We play a ton of rodeos, and I thought this was such a cowboy deal, and I don't wear a hat. They might not think I'm a cowboy. That might sound ridiculous to a lot of people, but apparently, it meant something to me. I wound up with a cowboy tattoo from my elbow to my wrist. "
Hat
Play
Think
" I went to 13 schools in 12 years. We moved all over the place. Music was the only thing that I could get behind... I wasn't that good at socializing. I'm still not. "
Over
Years
Good
" My father was an aspiring country singer and songwriter. He just didn't get that off that ground. I was afraid, very tentative to do anything with music for years. I didn't tell him I was playing in bands when I was away from home, because it had been such an unpleasant experience and a letdown for him. "
Home
Music
Father
" My own grandmother went to great lengths to make sure I knew simple things like how and when to open the door for a lady. And the best thing my mama taught me was to pray. "
Simple
Best
Door
" My preference is 3,000, maybe 5,000-seat venues. "
Venues
Preference
Maybe
" People ask you all the time, 'Why do you do this? Why don't you quit, man, take your money and go home?' I just do it because I love making music. "
Money
Love
Home
" Well, you can't throw heavy, analytical, thought-provoking songs at people 24/7. It's been my experience over the last 20 years that on a rare occasion, in a live setting, if you can slow people down to listen to two good ballads, then you're doing pretty good. Then throw a tempo at 'em. Then have fun. "
Live
Experience
Good
" What a fine line there is between artistry and insanity. There's no formula for it, and I think a lot of people when they're around you - even those closest to you - when you're in that whirl of creativity and you're grabbing those things out of the air, there's no rational process. "
Creativity
Process
You
" What I've learned by going out and playing smaller venues and being more in touch with people is getting feedback, just by virtue of being able to watch the crowd react and watch their faces instead of being blinded by 3,000 spotlights. I've realized that you can quickly get out of touch with your audience if you're not careful. "
React
You
Audience
" When I get all focused on songwriting, I get into all the marketing and promotion that we do to make it happen. Then the right song comes along and blows it all out of the water. The right song will do it for you every time. "
Time
Song
Make It Happen
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