Just because I don't sing about the normal country themes doesn't mean my songs aren't country. I'd rather sing about having fun.

When I started playing music at East Tennessee State University I would sit on a stool with a tip jar in front of me and play four hours a night at a college bar called Quarterback's Barbecue. I wasn't thinking about doing it for a living. I was just making enough money to go to Taco Bell every day. People were eating chips, drinking beer and not listening to me. I'd had three or four years of people ignoring me, and I'd kind of gotten used to it.

I can't believe that I get to stand on the stages I stand on every summer, and get to sing the songs that I sing.

I can't see going onstage wearing a long-sleeve shirt in the dead of summer. I work out hard during the day with a trainer who monitors everything I put in my mouth when I'm on tour. When I first got a record deal, you can tell by my early album covers that working out wasn't that much a part of my life.

I don't really drink before a show. That's my only drinking rule. Especially with today's cell-phone cameras, there's no win to it.

I'm dating a girl who's pretty levelheaded. She's a nurse. She's a real, normal girl. Which is what I need because my life isn't normal.

Growing up too fast and I do recall, Wishin' time would stop right in it's tracks.