As a songwriter, you might write every day and throughout the course of a year you might get four songs that are really special.

But as far as being an American and loving this country and getting a chance to travel across it every day and meeting people on the road and folks in the military, I love this country on so many different levels.

When you go to the Opry for a show or hear it on the radio, you get the whole circle of country music.

And if I want to get involved in choosing sides, I usually pick hockey or football.

I'm part of the party, getting the crowd fired up, singing songs, pouring drinks, whatever it takes to get them to have a good time. When I walk into the meet-and-greet, someone's always going to have a story, a sad story or a happy story.

When I was 13, I was just figuring out how to play 'Eruption,' poorly, by Eddie Van Halen.

And I'm the biggest country fan there is, but I'm always a little cautious of a slower song or just a song with subject matter.