I Always Loved Those Songs. And With

My Father Was A Man Of Love. He Always Loved Me To Death. He Worked Hard In The Fields, But My Father Never Hit Me. Never. I Don't Ever Remember A Really Cross, Unkind Word From My Father.

The Requests Started Coming In From Other Prisoners All Over The United States. And Then The Word Got Around. So I Always Wanted To Record That, You Know, To Record A Show Because Of The Reaction I Got. It Was Far And Above Anything I Had Ever Had In My Life, The Complete Explosion Of Noise And Reaction That They Gave Me With Every Song. So Then I Came Back The Next Year And Played The Prison Again, The New Year's Day Show, Came Back Again A Third Year And Did The Show.

My Contract With Mercury Polygram Nashville Was About To Expire. And I Never Had Really Been Happy. The Company, The Record Company, Just Didn't Put Any Promotion Behind Me. I Think One Album, Maybe The Last One I Did, They Pressed 500 Copies. And I Was Just Disgusted With It. And About That Time That I Got To Feeling That Way, Lou Robin, My Manager, Came To Me And Talked To Me About A Man Called Rick Rubin That He Had Been Talking To That Wanted Me To Sign With His Record Company.

Rick Rubin Said, Well, I Don't Know That We Will Sell Records. He Said, I Would Like You To Go With Me And Sit In My Living Room With A Guitar And Two Microphones And Just Sing To Your Heart's Content Everything You Ever Wanted To Record. I Said, That Sounds Good To Me. So I Did That. And Day After Day, Three Weeks, I Sang For Him.

[my Mother] Called [my Voice] The Gift.