The stage is my comfort zone, and playing live is what I've always wanted to do. It's why I want to do two hundred dates a year. I wouldn't feel that way if I were nervous onstage.

Any time I write a new song, I am jazzed about it for like 24 hours and then I am over it and want to write another one.

I write for myself. I don't write because I have a record coming out. I write because I want to. I need to.

I always loved LeAnn Rimes and especially Clint Black for his soulfulness. As I've gotten older, my influences have broadened - John Mayer, Michael Buble, Stevie Wonder, Keith Urban, Stevie Ray Vaughn, the Beatles - all of these artists have somehow been a part of my development as a songwriter.

Encore' was an experiment. 'Encore' was the second chance at a first impression. 'Encore' was not completely planned.

I'm from Louisiana, and that's where I got my start, in Cajun music. There's a huge music scene down there centered around our culture. Those are people that are not making music for a living. They are making music for the fun of it. And I think that's the best way I could have been introduced to music.

All I knew when I moved to Nashville was that I wanted to make music in whatever shape and form I could.