I probably would have never made it through college without baseball, so I'm thankful for that. I really am proud that I got to play on that level.
If I'm blessed enough to have financial freedom in this world, my family is the ones I owe thanks to first.
I see so many people living in a bubble. They want to be safe, they want their kids to be safe, and they want their friends to be safe. And I get that. That's awesome and really admirable. But life is not about who gets out the cleanest at the end, or who's the most well-preserved and healthiest.
The best times I've ever had and the greatest lessons I've ever learned were when my feet were out over the edge of the line, and I was at risk of getting a little beat up, physically and emotionally.
It's amazing how the biggest things in our lives - when we're around the fireplace and talking about them when we're older - the things that matter the most to us start off amazingly small and in a humble way.
I've got an incredible family that I never get to see. I've missed so much. They know how much my career means to me, and they allow me to go and be the workaholic that they never get to see. They support me in that.
My biggest turn-on is a fine pair of athletic legs. A girl with a fine pair of athletic legs who is not afraid to show them off. Turn-offs? A girl who doesn't like country music is a huge turn-off, and girls who don't take care of themselves.
I collect hotel keys. I hope to make something out of them someday. It would be cool to make a bar at my house and, like, the bar is all the hotel keys: lay them down and put glass over them. Or maybe even a coffee table.
Before you have a hit song, all you're doing is banging on the door and screaming, 'I've got something I want to play...' Now with the hit songs, they're like, 'Okay man, we're listening. Whaddya got for us?'
Someone might look like an overnight success, but there's a lot of hard work that goes into it, and rightfully so. That's the way it should be. There are exceptions to that rule, but in country music, people really have to pay their dues.
I believe it's possible to have hit songs and popular music that's recorded by human beings.
Life is relationships and what we're trying to do together. And please, that's what people have been singing about forever. That's what the blues is all about - the good, the bad, the fun, all of it - that lies there in between a man and a woman.