But that's the problem with playing new music sometimes before the record comes out: You have a bunch of yayhoots with opinions.

I think if you just look at life in a positive way, positive things will happen.

May the simple things be amazing on the journey of your life.

Anytime you put your name on a ticket with nothing else attached to it, that's the true testament to where you are in your career - how many tickets are sold.

Most people think in order to validate yourself as an artist, you have to write your own songs. I commend the guys that do. I've done it. But I also think that you can pick great songs outside that you didn't write that can help your career.

Some artists will tell you that's all they want to do is write their own music, and that's great, but George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks, they didn't write everything they recorded, and they've had major, major careers. I think it's all about the best song.

Not to be narcissistic, but I truly believe in order to make yourself better, you should see what you did before and what was good about that and what wasn't - same way a football team plays a game and then they go back and watch film.