I didn't realize until I was older what a huge music fan my daddy really was, and actually that my grandma played banjo at one time, and I didn't even know that until a year or two ago.

"After 17" is a song I wrote when my first daughter went to college, so that's kind of where I'm at in that part of my life. If you listen to that song and knew anything about me, you'd say, "Oh yeah, he wrote that about his daughter," but I try not to write them that they are so specific that they wouldn't apply to anybody that has a child.

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.

A country song is a song about life.

I've had to live with women all my life. I grew up with four older sisters, and I was the baby and the only boy.

Love is stolen in the shadows of the night. Though it's wrong all along, it keeps going on as long as they keep it out of sight.

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.