I think you need to do something new to keep reinventing yourself.

I'm really private, and also, when I'm home, I'm home. I don't like people in on my business. I believe that you can be overexposed.

I am so anti-people's opinions when I'm making a record, but when it's finished and I put it out there, I hope somebody likes it.

It's always performing for me. I write and I record so I can perform. It all ties to that. I've done it since I was a little kid. That's my absolute rush, is playing for different people every night, bringing something else to the table they've never seen.

We sat around and I fed them barbecue and whiskey. And pretty soon everyone started to compete with each other on the guitars. It seemed the more everyone drank and ate, the more everyone got into it.

When you take other people's opinions, you end up flailing and you have no center.

I really like the old stuff that I cut my musical teeth on, and I loved it when the industry was just like that, without really a genre. Today, country radio's more aimed at a demographic than a genre. It just softens everything.