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.

People get out of music what they want to get out of it, and all I try to do is do the same thing.

I think the best thing, or the greatest thing my girls have going for them, is having their mother as a role model.

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.

I always want to learn but I am sure on my dying day I will feel like I left something in the bucket.

Like I say, I'm always writing and if something sticks, it sticks. I get to write with great songwriters in town. Lori McKenna is one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters who's ever walked the planet. I get to write with her. The Warren Brothers are friends of mine and I write with them all the time. Lance Miller is a great songwriter. Tom Douglas - you can't get any better than that. I write a lot of stuff but it's got to stick.

When you touch and change peoples lives with a song, that's when you've made it as an artist