I felt as a human being I needed to take a pause and reflect on a lot of stuff that's happened. That was really good for me. And to get some of the ringing out of my years from all the amps on stage.
If I'm 40 years old and wearing a 30 waist, that's pretty good.
I hate album covers where people are just smiling so big. It's like a neon sign that says PLEASE COME BUY ME.
I don't really lose my temper that much, but when somebody mistreats my guys, I just go crazy.
I was on one bus with my band and crew for seven years. I didn't come to town with a karaoke tape. I didn't get on a TV show. There were no shortcuts. Anybody who wants to follow my model is welcome to it. You don't want to follow my path.
There's this idea that somebody's job could be more important than somebody else's, and to me, that's not true.
I think it is possible to be friends with employees, but there has to be a respect level where you're not taken advantage of, either.
My elementary school is still there [in Luttrell, Tennessee]. I drop by my high school. It's a small community. I say this every night before I do the song 'The Boys of Fall' in the show - I'm really happy about where I grew up and how I grew up.
I realized that I wanted to get better in every way. As a person, as a friend, as a songwriter, as a musician, as an artist, record producer, you name it.
There are only so many hours you can sit on the bus and watch TV or play basketball or whatever we do to pass the time before we go out onstage.
There's this emotion we all feel of being overwhelmed at times, feeling that you can't get ahead. For me it's self-imposed because I'm so driven and I'm always going from project to project.
Before, I was more concerned with getting on the radio, like many young artists.
It sounds like a cliche, but it... you do sing about what you know about. And I grew up in a small town, and I grew up in a place where your whole world revolved around friends, family, school, and church, and sports.
When I try to brush the road dust off of me and untangle all the wires in my head, I'm usually surrounded by music on a boat. But that's not how I wake up every day.
Every Christmas my hometown radio station would always play 'Christmas In Dixie' by Alabama. I always remember lovin' that song.
He had a voice that was the truth, raw and unfiltered. You can't get any realer, any more tortured or any more alive. No one can do what George Jones does, and that's why 50 years later, he still stands out as one of the greatest singers in any genre of all time.
Record labels today are much less patient: Artists have a bad record, and they're gone.
I can say that I don't see myself with the foot on the gas pedal as hard as it's been down for 16 years.
Now I'm a symbol of what to be and how hard to work. I have heads of major labels say, "I wish you could teach our artists how to do it." At one point I was the punching bag of what not to be, and now I'm the model of what to be.
I don't really drink before a show. That's my only drinking rule. Especially with today's cell-phone cameras, there's no win to it.
I have 120 employees on the road every day, and about 30 other employees off the road.
I love the fact that I can go out there on stage with a guitar and sing a song that means something to somebody.
Ive always been drawn to the ocean.
First and foremost, I consider myself a songwriter.
I love you baby goodnight. There goes my life
