I think it took me a while to convince Nashville that what I do is genuine and my heart's in the right place, and I love country music.

I tend to write better when I'm not touring.

I'm grateful when anybody can start to have his or her limited perception of the genre open up a little bit. There's a lot of great music in the country genre that doesn't get heard because people say, 'Well, I don't like country.'

It's not the case of turning in a bunch of songs and recording the next month. I think you're looking for songs all year long and you're writing all year long.

I don't swear much; I've taken those words out of my vocabulary, and having kids, you have to have two sets of language!

I make no apologies for being a huge fan of radio songs.

And now you've lost the only thing that ever made you feel alive.