The rush of creating sounds and mixing sounds is always an interesting challenge, especially for someone like me, who doesn't know about sound.

I have a love of gear and pedals, from old pedals to new ones with new sounds. If I get depressed, I start looking for a certain type of pedal, learn the history, who and what it was made for, that kinda thing.

I've never gone to school for recording. I wish I understood it more. School's been hard, learning things has been hard, because of the A.D.H.D., or dyslexia, or whatever you want to call it, but I know how to come up with stuff to bring it together.

Balance is always tough with the kind of shows and my work ethic and all of that, but that definitely helps me do what I do in the big picture.

The best pay off in the world is when someone comes up to you and says, 'your music has helped me with some pretty rough times through life. I don't know if I would still be here if it was for your music whether it be country music or heavy metal has done for me.' That's ultimately the biggest payoff for me. I hear it from young kids to military guys and military women to older folks.

The vocals are the very last thing I do. So, it's kinda the opposite: with country. it's singing and guitar first, but with rock, I worry about the riff and music, vocals last.

I've never left for New York. I've stood my ground here my whole career and hopefully will be able to until the day that I die.