If I get an idea for a song, I have a melody for it. I'm a musician first. I'm not limited by the fretboard.

The nice thing about the world that I've been able to inhabit for the last couple of years is that I'm given a lot of freedom. Not all artists really get that.

When Ray Flacke came out, it was like 'What in the heck is this?' ... there's a guy who had that Tele players attitude, and he plugged straight into that amp with a delay, and it was unbelievable the way he would bend those big strings ... he was really unique.

I changed my mindset and figured, Why not try to be really entertaining instrumentally?

I really worked to try and be creative enough on the guitar parts so those who aren't real educated would know that there was some difficulty in doing it.

Guitar playing isn't really for everybody.

This is real, this is your life in a song...this is country music.