I think country music is about honesty. Any art has to have honesty to start with, as the core of it. I mean, they're just going to manipulate you in one way or the other, but there has to honesty at the core of it.

You stand by me, and you believe in me like nobody ever has. When my world goes crazy, you're right there to save me. You make me see how much I have.

But, yea, I grew up in a strong Baptist background.

I think you have to be a little bit strict. You can't be friend and their parent in a lot of situations, especially in this day and age where it's so dangerous for kids. So there's a bit of sternness, I guess, in the way I raise my kids.

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.

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.

Love can sort of rebound and regrow and reinvent itself around a lot of things, but when somebody can't forgive themself for something, I think love sort of withers in that situation.