I think the first thing you should know is that nobody in country music 'made it' the same way. It's all different. There's no blueprint for success, and sometimes you just have to work at it.

I'm not that complicated. My complications come out in my songs. All you need to do to be my friend is like me.

If you want some big revelation, since 2010 I have dated exactly two people. The fact that there are slide shows of a dozen guys that I either hugged on a red carpet or met for lunch or wrote a song with ... it's just kind of ridiculous.

Spending a lot of time alone, gave me a lot of time to think. A lot of time to think gave me the time to write songs.

Most of the time, songs that I write end up being finished in 30 minutes or less.

I'd like to be my old self again but I'm still trying to find it

I love trying to beat what I've done so far.