Carlene Carter Quotes
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I think, looking back, there was a lot of fear of success in me. When you are successful, you have to keep it up... it requires you to be responsible, and I had been pretty irresponsible.
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I do feel I'm responsible to carrying on the music. That's what I was charged with as a kid. When I was a little girl, I was told, 'When we are gone' - when you're a kid, you never think they'll ever be gone - 'you have to keep the music alive, the Carter Family songs, and add your own songs.'
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Even city people have ancestors who had their hands in the dirt.
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One good thing is I was instilled with really good values. My mom treats everyone the same.
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There's something unnatural about losing a sibling when they're young.
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It's all for a reason and all happened the way it was supposed to happen.
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I can laugh and cry at the drop of a freakin' hat - all at the same time.
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I hate parameters. They immediately alienate a bunch of people.
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I'm pretty much an open book.
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Working with Mellencamp, I made new fans, people that may have never heard of me. They may have heard I was related to the Carter Family or Johnny Cash somehow, but what they got was pure Carlene.
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Whenever I've not known what to do, I've always gone back to the Carter Family because there was nothing like singing with my aunts and my mom to my grandma.
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My mom is a great entertainer.
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The first time I went on stage as an adult was touring with the Johnny Cash Show. I'd sang as a child. But my grown-up initiation was as part of that band.
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I got into photography when my kids were little, and I continued talking pictures over the years.
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I moved back to Tennessee in '86 or '87. That's when I worked with the Carter Family because I really wanted to understand my roots.
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My grandma passed in '78, and that's the year I started recording. It's also the year that my dad retired from his career. So it's funny how torches get passed on, and you feel a responsibility to be connected to the music that they did and try to carry it on in your own way.
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I love rock n' rollers.
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There was a period where I was a little scared that I'd blown my chance.
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I've always been one to throw caution to the wind, and my motto has been, 'Never have a dull moment.' Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, but I don't think I'd have it much differently.
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It's a matriarchal family, the Carters. A.P. was the original head of the Carter family, but the women were always strong. There were no questions asked in that regard; you had better be strong.
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I feel the audience are friends that have come to see us. That was always how we look on it in the Carter Family. I've never suffered stage fright.
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Sometimes, it's good to stick to your guns.
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I grew up quick because my family was away a lot, and I took care of my sister. Then in my 20s, I went through my teens, with these 'wild abandon' things.
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I'm kind of a perfectionist about my songwriting. If I don't mean it, I don't think it's any good.