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.

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.

When you really are country, and you don't just wear it like a piece of clothing or something, you really can't get away from it. It just is who you are

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.

Background vocals during her song "I Hope You Dance" .....'Time is a wheel in constant motion always, rolling us along. Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder, where those years have gone.'

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.

So you do shorter versions of the hits, or you take out a long guitar solo or things like that to make time for the hits and new music as well. But I don't think any of us ever get to do as much new music as we would like to.