Me and my band and crew have always lived by the code: 'Work hard, play harder.'

I love the fact that I can go out there on stage with a guitar and sing a song that means something to somebody.

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 hate album covers where people are just smiling so big. It's like a neon sign that says PLEASE COME BUY ME.

I drink a few beers, and I've smoked a little pot. But I'm too health conscious to do it regularly. I run a lot. I don't smoke cigarettes. Pot is the hardest thing I've tried, really.

Certain nights, when everything's perfect and we have thousands of people partying their asses off, I break my rule and have a drink onstage. I've never done a show drunk. Well, I take that back. In the early days I did.

One word, that's all you said and something in your voice caused me to turn my head. Your smile just captured me.