You know, you want everything you do, obviously, to be a success critically and commercially. But what you find out as you go along is that everything won't.

And for the past 10 years Ive been in a real commercial setting where people are all about numbers, theyre all about that bottom line. So its nice to step out of that and hang out with a bunch of people who play music just because they love it, as you can imagine.

My first big show was with Tim McGraw and Mark Chesnutt, and that was overwhelming. There was probably 25,000 people there. I was nervous, (but it) was exhilarating.

I don't sing country music because I'm not capable of singing other kinds of music; I sing it because I think it's the most beautiful kind of music there is

Well, probably having to be away from home. When I come back I kind of feel like there's a routine going on that I'm not a part of, so that can be difficult.

It's hard either way, at home or on the bus, I think the hardest thing probably for me is going one second from being mom to right out on the stage and having to be that person too. It's hard to switch gears.

The satisfaction comes because you work hard and it pays off. It is not as glamorous as I thought it would be, but, you know, I appreciate it more than I ever knew I would, and I love it more than I ever knew I would.