My mother kept asking me, "When are you going to do a gospel album?" And I've always wanted to do a gospel album. Everybody was going on about it, so mom started hounding me more.

Oklahoma's always been good to me.

It's a scary word, 'cancer.'

I like to write sad songs. They're much easier to write and you get a lot more emotion into them. But people don't want to hear them as much. And radio definitely doesn't; they want that positive, uptempo thing.

I think I've always approached making albums pretty much the same way. I'm just looking for a mixture of songs and topics that aren't the same thing over and over.

I think if you retire from touring, then people think you are retired.

The older you are, I think you realize what you enjoy and what you don't need, what wears you out and what's important.