I started playing bluegrass with my family, so there were the G, C and D chords. I was playing a Martin acoustic because that's what Carter Stanley of the Stanley Brothers played. Then I got into the really raw blues of Hound Dog Taylor and started on electric guitar.

Coming from a smaller place always made things feel more personal, which is really what it's all about.

You know, there's always someone in mind when I'm writing. You know, it's all comes from somewhere inside.

I'm definitely a guitar player, but it's the last thing I listen to in a song, after the singer and the drums.

When I'm writing with just an acoustic guitar, it can be for anyone.

I never listen to Led Zeppelin. But, I mean, I don't think Robert Plant or Jimmy Page listen to Led Zeppelin, either. We all probably obsessed over the same old blues records growing up.

Hip hop is the new rock n' roll, you know what I mean? And anybody who doesn't think that is just sort of living in the past. It's all just American music, really, when you get right down to it.