It was a rambling old white wooden house like you would think of out in the country. Southerners have this thing where the extended family is around a lot. It would be my grandparents, then me, my brothers and my mom and dad, then some cousins and an aunt or uncle or two. So when I think of that house it was kind of command central. I felt safe there.

It sounds as if you have some interesting relatives.

Let’s just say there are a lot of characters in my family. Like the F.B.I. came to the house one time because my Uncle Don brought this friend home who was wanted all over the country. My grandfather is cutting up a turtle that he killed to make turtle soup, and the F.B.I. comes through the back door, and it’s a raid on the house.

Do you have a home in Arkansas?

No. My mom still lives in Little Rock, and I got a couple of aunts and uncles and cousins there. My second home, if you could say I got one, is Austin, Tex. It’s my kind of town because it’s a hippie town and a cowboy town.

For six years you lived at the Sunset Marquis in Hollywood. What did you like about hotel living?

I’ve always been 50/50 on things. I’m a hopeless romantic, and yet I like to live a bachelor’s lifestyle. I’m that way with hotel living and home living. I really want to have a home but, boy, living in hotels and having room service and having someone clean up.

And I like small rooms. Even here in this big house, I kind of hole myself up in whatever room. Even if the room were 100 feet long, I would still have my chair four feet from the television. I like a couch and chairs where everything has you boxed in.