I think you can have moderate success by copying something else, but if you really want to knock it out of the park, you have to do something different and take chances.

But I'm also a music lover, and I'll always try a lot of different things.

I think a lot of it had to do with, you know, I was always a daddy's girl. I was always wanting to please him, and I think he was pleased when he'd walk past my room and I was listening to those records.

I've learned the lesson that when you're in the middle of something that seems overwhelming, or you're in a bad situation and it seems like it's the end of the world or whatever, then you learn that it's not.

It takes so many people to make a success story like that. It starts with the song and the songwriters, then Mark Wright's producing, all of the players that played on it, me singing, the marketing department, the promotion department at the label... It takes a lot of people to make a hit like that.

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.

Never settle for the path of least resistance