Not often does a music icon reveal the ingredients of their secret sauce, but Vince Gill was recently a guest on Clint Black’s Peacock TV series Talking in Circles, and he revealed exactly how he makes a hit record a hit.

“I think a lot of the best songs in the world have a great opening line,” Gill said, pointing specifically to George Jones‘ “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”

“‘He said I’ll love you ’til I die.’ You go back and look through so many of these great songs and there’s a reason that they get ya right off the bat,” he reflects.

But it’s not just a great opening lyric that can make a country song great in Gill’s eyes. He explains that often, it can be the arrangement of the music in the beginning of a song that captivates someone.

Gill then went on to talk about one of his biggest hits. “Same thing with “When I Call Your Name,” it’s that piano intro. It all of a sudden had definition. The record was defined long before I started singing.”

Other than a great opening 15 seconds, the country legend says that brevity is important when trying for a hit record: The best country hits often say the most in the least amount of words.

Read More: Vince Gill Admits He Doesn’t Like a Lot of His Own Records

Gill admits that in the 1970s, when he was a younger artist on the come-up, he didn’t understand this point. He says he was all over the place, trying to over-play and over-sing songs.

As his career progressed, he learned that less is more and to make sure each part of the song is up to par with the other, while grabbing the listeners attention instantly with a great opening.