From my dad I learned to be good to people, to always be honest and straightforward. I learned hard work and perseverance.

You get weird, funny requests on Twitter. With our fan club, I was seeing a lot of fans were having some issue with the way the fan club tickets were being handled in one of the shows. So I was able to correspond with that fan, and be like, 'Listen, we'll be on it.'

To have your first No. 1 as an artist was everything I could have ever dreamed for. Now we're keeping our fingers crossed, and hopefully we'll have many more, but there's certainly nothing like the first one.

A big part of country music is a way of life, at least from my standpoint. That's how I craft my music from my own life experiences.

I think the attraction to country music is the fans, the lure of the hardcore fan base.

People hear me talk and they know my background and they immediately stereotype me as being a real, real country guy, and that's the right stereotype. But you also want people to know you're a little broader than that, too.

American Idol allowed us to find Carrie Underwood.