I would never do anything that makes the perception of country music worse.
My first record deal was an independent record deal back in 1995 or early 1996.
Sometimes as an artist you get wrapped up in what you are doing and you can’t be objective.
Sometimes you have to listen to other people, and see what the audiences want. That’s what entertaining is about.
The risks are ‘How country can you go?’ rather than ‘How rock can you take it?’
Winning the ACM, winning the CMA, my first time on the Opry and having Grammy nominations were all a big deal to me.
I’ve certainly had to bite my tongue on occasion and live to fight another day, so to speak, on certain things. But when you’re new and fresh, you come out and think, ‘I don’t want to screw my chance up, so I’ll go along with what everybody else does.’
If one artist sells five million albums, the tendency is for other artists to say, ‘Maybe I should do a little of that, too.’ That can be tough to resist.
I think it is a huge honor to get to go play for the troops who have been working their tails off for several years, some with several tours under their belt.
The biggest question I have is if you’re a rock singer or a rock ‘n’ roll band, or if you’re a pop singer if you’ve made your way in another genre of music and now you want to make a country record, why? That’s my question. Why?
For me, I wanted somebody that got me musically, that understood that I’m an artist and this is who I am. I’m not going to be like another artist on your label, probably – hopefully. I found all those things with the Broken Bow group.
When you find great songs, and somehow you get a spark in a little way, it can become brand new.
The passion for doing music, the passion that I have for going out and playing it live – my love for country music is back.
I married a woman who’s not going to take anything. No slips. She’s very accountable, and she holds me very accountable.
I enjoy my life very much.
Our agricultural colleges continue to graduate specialists who become vocational agricultural teachers in the schools, and county agents, who go forth to extol the virtues of poison insecticides, herbicides, and commercial fertilizers.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with singing a song and having fun with it.
I can’t sing anything other than country!
I believe there’s things all around us that make you do good things and some that make you do bad things.
I believe in angels. I believe in God.