It’s innate in me to be a Democrat — a true Southern populist kind of Democrat. There’s not a lot of those anymore. I’m not saying I’m right or wrong. That’s just the way I feel. The issues that matter to me are the social safety nets for people, health care, middle-class concerns. We need to take care of the middle class and the poor in our country. The chasm is getting larger between haves and have-nots, and that’s something we need to close down a little bit.

Five years ago I figured we were at the top of our game and that was the best it was going to get, but with every album it seems to keep on building on itself.

There's rises and falls and ups and downs in all music.

Some say it's too country, some say it's too rock n' roll. But it's just good music if you can feel it in your soul.

I still got a few more dances with the devil...

Country radio went through a time where they were trying to pigeonhole everybody, and trying to make the gap really narrow, and I think that they've opened that up a little bit.

Critics who attack my wife bug me. It makes me want to pay 'em a visit so I could give 'em a good punch in the nose.