I was singing a lot of waltzes. And I was with Jerry Kennedy, my producer, and he was playing me some songs, and he said, hey, I want to play you this song that I'm going to get Jackie Ward to record.

I always like story songs, Dolly Parton, Tom T. Hall, Mel Tillis, Red Stegall, when they'd do their story songs. I was totally enthralled.

For me, singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open into the light, out of the darkness.

When I left, after my divorce, when I left Oklahoma, I never looked back. It was the future. It was looking forward from then on.

[Faith] guides me on everything I do, i ask for guidance, I ask the Lord to give me wisdom when I speak, when I think and I always try to be positive and say nice things and it gives me strength throughout every minute and every day.

But I like to listen to demos. I like to hear the finished product. It's like listening to a song - I mean, a story. If you're going to sit here and tell me a story, I just like to listen. I don't want to make them up.

Growing up is not being so dead-set on making everybody happy.