Mac McAnally has heard the scufflers’ stories, the tales of what people had to do to stake a place in the music industry.

He knows about the scratch, pound and claw.

He’s just never done any of it.

“Whatever day they gave out the personal ambition to want to be a star-type, I got none of it,” says McAnally, who for four consecutive years has been voted the Country Music Association’s top musician. “I never knocked on a single door in my life.”