When I was a kid, my step dad started this business and would go out and get lost cows and stuff. He was part-time truck driver, farmer and cowboy. He taught me how to ride from an early age.

I'm coming up on 40 next year, and after making so many records and doing music for so long, I'm looking for a change and a different perspective. And every now and then, I think I have something I want to say.

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.

When you get in the middle of a career and you're successful, people come and offer you things. My biggest fear was that if you try to do something else and you're trying to build your music career, and then you say, "I'm going to go do a movie," and you're terrible, you can really hurt your music career because as a musician, the goal is to be cool. You're playing the guitar and you're in front of all these people and your vibe is to be as cool as you can possibly be.

I like the values in Flicka, and I wanted to do a movie my kids could see and be proud of.

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.

But I was so wrapped up in sports growing up as a kid, that I think I was going to grow to be a pro ball player. But I found out real quick that was not going to happen.