I was living in Knoxville, Tennessee, and I didn't really know how you would become a singer. I didn't even think that I could do it. I didn't even dream about it. But when I was 12, it was that year where I got tall, boys got cute, everything was weird. Then my parents split up on top of that, so it was a big year of change for me.
As a young girl, there are pressures that come with any career, but I decided when I got into this I didn't want to be perfect.
I've gotten to be part of a lot of incredible tours and have learned so much from the people I've had the opportunity to open for.
You really do have to be different. You really do have to set yourself apart.
I did ballet, jazz, and all that, but I think hip-hop is really where I learned rhythm and groove, which has helped me in music.
'The First Time' is a song that I wrote by myself on my front porch, in real-time, as that situation was happening to me.
I was writing country songs, but I wasn't listening to country yet. I grew up on a farm in East Tennessee, so my roots are country, you know? But I didn't know where those songs came from or where they fit.
I remember telling myself when I got to start having artist opportunities, 'Let yourself be a fan, because you are. The minute that you walk in a room with Carrie Underwood, and you're too cool to freak out, you need to check yourself.' I just let myself be a fan.
I am a fan before I am an artist. I was that twelve year old girl that looked up to Taylor Swift. I get what that role is as a fan. I think that because I know that, I'm really careful and intentional about what I say and what I put out. I want to be that role for anyone who wants me to be that.
The fun thing about song writing is that it's just creative. It can be whatever you want it to be. For me, I'm really protective of that. I'm not going to write something because I feel like it fits here or it fits there - I just want to write music that feels good to me, you know?
Hillary Scott from Lady Antebellum is like my big sister.
With Rascal Flatts, I'm such a fan of them, and I feel like they've been so gracefully relevant through decades of country music.
There's a YouTube video of these two kittens that just fall over and pass out. My blood sugar's crazy, so I would pass out sometimes, like the fainting kittens.
I try to be a good person. I love Jesus.
My theory is the root of a country artist is truth and honesty. For me, I look at Sam Hunt. The truth and the honest thing is we have southern roots, we were raised in a southern way, but we listen to Drake and other stuff, too.
I was this little blond girl with a guitar case bigger than me - it was pink and sparkly at the time. But I always took myself seriously, and I think that people took that seriously. I would tell them about my goal list, and they listened. I was like, 'I want to be the one that swings the pendulum.'
When I was 13, I started writing songs, and it fell into my lap all of a sudden. I wrote poems and journals, but that's when it switched for me to songwriting. That's when I wanted to do everything. It was like a fire all of a sudden. I started coming to Nashville and moved here when I was 15.
I started writing songs by myself. That always came from whatever I was feeling and being honest about that because I never had any intention of anyone ever hearing them.
Being a songwriter is really the base of being an artist, for me.
My favorite songwriting trick is writing something like 'XO.' In my brain, I thought, 'This is probably going to be a love song. How can I change that and find ways to twist that.' As a songwriter, it's your job for the song to take twists and turns that people don't expect.
