She's got her God and she's got good wine, Aretha Franklin, and Patsy Cline.

I was an A student and I liked creative writing.

I always want to sing, but I don't always want to be trying to have #1 records. I don't think you can do it forever. I don't know what the time span of that is going to be. I want to sing because I want to sing.

Music is my No. 1 passion. If you made me choose between music and food, it's definitely music.

Songs are like movies to me, and so you put yourself in the movie. You become a character in the movie. The new ones are exciting because they're fresh. But if it's not that, if the story is not what you get into, maybe it's the crowd response. You hit the first chords of 'She's In Love With The Boy' and 20,000 people start to scream, you're pretty motivated. You get what you need. And it's a great story. It works.

I finished high school, moved to Nashville for college, and set out to break into the music business. Every night when I called home with news of my experiences, my mom and dad would encourage me to keep taking those small steps.

The most important thing I want to get across is that maintaining weight loss is just hard. It takes a dedication to exercise and eating right most of the time. I'm not saying I don't enjoy the days that I'm not eating chocolate cake. But I do particularly like those days when I am eating chocolate cake.