Whether I'm making my own record, or playing a guitar part, I want what I do to have an impact.

It is not that I don't like contemporary country music because I do. I love it. I have recorded a lot and have had great success recording records that have not been very traditional country records.

There ain't no future in the past.

A lot of people play to impress, but the really gifted ones play to move. That's the greatest point of ever doing this.

You learn a whole lot more about a person if they have bad breaks and all those kind of things.

And from my place, and from the time that I went through my divorce, I also had my father pass away in the middle of all that. And it kind of made everything else just kind of like the back burner, you know.

It would be fun to go back and see where all my songs stopped, because I think I'd have every number in the top 100. It never ceases to amaze me. It still hurts when one doesn't work, because you put your heart and soul into it.