Obviously the way that I talk and the way that I dress all has to do with the way that I was raised. As far as the drive, when I was 18 or 21 years old, everything I did was because I wanted to go play music simply because that's what I wanted to do.

I don't know that we're beating anyone at their own game. I just think that we tried to include a lot of Nashville entities from the very beginning, just to see if that would work. We were trying to take my music to a different level and some people wanted me to change my style and my image, obviously that's not going to happen so we simply thanked those people for their time.

Pushing myself against my own will really, because some of this stuff is hard. I don't consider myself to be a great guitar player, so pushing myself as a guitar player or pushing myself as a singer, as a performer, and just riding that fine line between being so hard on yourself that it's counter-productive and being so hard on yourself that nothing is ever good enough is what drives me.

I just continue to be myself and give this thing over to the good lord, just do my best every night and pretend like it's just any other job.

I think my brand of country music is that's been influenced by not just the rough-stock rodeo side or Ted Nugent's "let's get crazy style", but also the stand-up and sing style's like George Strait and Merle Haggard, and also the wild side of Chris Ledoux

I hate to say stuff like this because everyone dreams about playing The Opry, everyone dreams about playing Gruene Hall, but I've always tried to not concentrate too hard on where I want to go because I know if I put too much stock into it, it would be pretty disappointing if I never got there.

My publishing deal is out of Nashville, my management is split between Nashville and Texas, but we are also getting to play eight other states as well as Canada and Europe this year. I don't want to pigeon-hole myself. When people ask me if I'm Texas or Nashville, I tell them I am just Cody Johnson.