Jason Isbell Quotes

I know it's financially lucrative to go out on my own, but I don't like it. It's really hard work, just the performance aspect. I like people who look like they've been together for too long and sound like they've been together too long. I like rock n' roll bands.

Jason Isbell

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Quotes to Explore

• For a lot of folks who get sober, the process of getting and staying sober becomes their higher power, and it becomes a religion that sort of consumes a whole lot of them. I just don't think that that's necessary. I think that that can be a side note rather than the story of your life.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Life
  • Power

• I think politics are a very personal thing.

  

  Jason Isbell

• I feel like for me to write songs that I would be interested in as a listener, there has to be tension, and there has to be some kind of push and pull between reality and the potential of disaster.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Reality

• I like not having to worry about paying the bills, but I have to watch myself because I don't come from money.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Money
  • Worry

• I'm not a big AA guy, but I'll go every once in a while. They do tell you that going out and helping other people really helps you a lot. It seems like a simple thing to say, but it's really true.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • People
  • True
  • Guy

• It comes down to the difference between what you were planning to do and what life throws at you and you have to end up doing. The one who knows how to improvise is the one who comes out ahead.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Life
  • Up
  • Planning

• If I spend time at the front of the process worrying about connecting themes, then I won't write the best songs.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Time

• The world changes fast, and a lot of the old country folks have a hard time keeping up with it, and it makes them sad.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Up
  • Time
  • World

• I know people who have written big hit country songs that are really kind of terrible songs, but for the rest of their life, they're the guy who wrote that. You've got to be careful; if you don't want that to happen, don't write those songs.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • People
  • Life
  • Country

• I'd rather have 1000 of our fans than 10,000 Kid Rock fans!

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Rock

• If you're going to document your own journey, the jokes work better in the first person, just like the stories do.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Work
  • Journey

• It occurred to me the thing that broke my heart the most was when I grew up and realized everything wasn't an adventure. I got to a certain age and realized I couldn't be Indiana Jones.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Up
  • Heart
  • Age

• When I hear somebody like Hayes Carll write a song that's touching and poignant and sad and funny all at the same time, it motivates me to step my game up and try to figure out a way to get more different emotions into one line or one song.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Up
  • Time
  • Different

• I think I'm a common man for the most part, but I don't work as hard as most people that I know.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • People
  • Work

• It's not easy to sit down and open yourself up and say, 'This is how much I love you,' you know? It's scary to do that.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Up
  • Scary

• Whatever needed to be done, I need to know how to do it just as well as my wife. You know, for us to be able to really balance the parenting. It was very humbling, and it was also, um - terrifying. Because, you know, giving a baby a bath for the first time is one of the scariest things you can do on this whole earth.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Time
  • Done
  • Earth

• The more you read, the better you are at writing, no matter what you're writing. A lot of songwriters miss that and don't see the connection there, and I've always felt like you're more able to communicate if you have a bigger toolbox to work with.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Work
  • Writing
  • Connection

• I think sometimes I write to impress my influences. Whether they're actually acquaintances of mine, people that I think will hear the record or not, I still write - not to imitate my influences - but to write something that would live up to their standards.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • People
  • Up
  • Live

• I don't remember a lot of the good times from my days with the Truckers.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Good
  • Remember

• My wife and I both grew up with parents who were very young. Her mom was, I think, 17 or 18 when she was born; my mom was 15 when I was born. So, as we got older, we started thinking a lot about that - about the time that those people missed because we came along when we did and because they devoted so much of their lives to taking care of us.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • People
  • Up
  • Time

• I have my own definitions of success. And I have my own definitions of country music that, luckily, I share with more people than I realized before.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • People
  • Music
  • Country

• My dad, he worries a bit, usually with good reason. There were quite a few years there where he was probably trying to resign himself to fact that I wouldn't live too much longer, just because of the way I was living.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • Good
  • Live
  • Trying

• Early on, I had to structure my ideas of success around things like, 'Can I go back and listen to the record months or years after I made it and still get some enjoyment out of it?' Or 'Have I said what I wanted to say on this album? Did it connect with people on a personal level, even if it's a small number of people?'

  

  Jason Isbell
  • People
  • Success
  • Small

• An incredible number of people have raised children who aren't too screwed up. Surely, I won't be the worst at it.

  

  Jason Isbell
  • People
  • Up
  • Children