All I ever wanted to do was write songs and get on a bus and go play them for people.

It's a great feeling to be recognized by your peers. It's an even better feeling to be welcomed and accepted by country radio and its listeners. If desire is any part of this equation, then I'm a contender!

I'm a Scorpio, and who knows if there is any validity to it, but I'm very emotional. I have high highs and low lows.

As a young girl, there were the obvious messages about what girls could and couldn't achieve. And to compound the limitations I felt being leveled upon me, I realized at the age of nine, that I was gay.

I hear the word 'tolerance'-tha t some people are trying to teach people to be tolerant of gays. I'm not satisfied with that word. I am gay, and I am not seeking to be 'tolerated'. One tolerates a toothache, rush-hour traffic, an annoying neighbor with a cluttered yard. I am not a negative to be tolerated.

I grew up in a very modest house. We were poor-we lived on the poverty level. We all got jobs as young kids.

I came along at a time when the industry was eating its young.