If you are close to your parents or a grandparent, you watch as they get old and you learn so much from that, and it makes you want to learn more while you have time.

I don't think I thought I was going to go into music, and I don't think it hit me until I was 13 or 14, and then I was gone. Just like that. At that point, there was nothing else that could keep my attention.

Being with my kids is really important to me, being a good dad and being around a lot.

L.A.'s cool; I had a run with it to where it just pretty much wore me out. I love the weather and I have great friends there, great family, but I really cannot take a lot of the culture. Like Nashville, where everybody's a songwriter, everybody out there is an actor.

All those songs are totally timeless. They'll always stand up because they came from a real place. They weren't crafted songs. They were written from the heart.

All of my records have been very personal, just writing more and more songs, you get better at being able to say what you feel.

You know, when I was younger I was into all kinds of art - drawing, painting, all that stuff. But I played drums, played piano forever.