I have a conscience, man, and I've worked really hard to keep it where you would feel like you were talking to the same man at one of my shows or sitting down at my dinner table.

Also, I think I'd like to see more out-of-state shows, man. As bad as I hate to say this, I'm looking forward to playing for nobody. That's what happens when you're a guy like me and you travel out to Sacramento, California.

When you're in a room with a guy who has a vision like that, it's just one of those things where you close your eyes and just see that vision - then you just go with it. The guys that I write with are so incredible, just like my producer Trent Willmon, those guys know how to bring things out of me - especially things that I maybe didn't even know that I had.

It's really helped a ton in the sense that we get to reach people who don't normally know our music. At least once a night at a show someone will come up to the merch table after the show and say they've never heard of me but they saw me on Troubadour, TX, and it reminds me that I'm not Elvis and anything I can do to get my name out there is beneficial in every way.

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

Without changing my style and who I am, they [Trent Willmon and Dan Couch and Dale Oliver ] know how to draw those things out of me. It was a really cool experience on this record, because I tried really hard on the writing to make sure that I wasn't just writing it just like I wanted to.

I don't know about one moment that has pivoted my career. I do know that one thing that hit me and made me take a few steps back was a year at Steamboat.