I think I've lived a pretty hard life. What I mean by hard is that... I've been kind of reckless with things. I'm a passionate person. I'm a super passionate person. I think there's definitely been sorrow in my life, good and bad. I think it comes through. I hope it comes through in my writing because to me that's what artistry is.
You can't live your life trying to please people. You be courteous and you be respectful, but you've got to do things in the way that you want to do them.
Everyone, whether you are married or have a boyfriend or girlfriend, there's always someone who has a hold of your heart. You learn to let it go, but there's always a place in your heart. For me, it was someone I went to college with and we had an amazing bond, but I left.
I'm depressed when I don't get to do music. Having to go back to doing something I don't like and am not passionate about would be a tough thing.
People ask who I am as an artist, who I am as a person. I don't ever want to tell them who I am; you can find that out in the music.
Being on the road is a great habitat for creating new music because there's so many different experiences.
I started playing guitar, like, when I was 17 or so, but where I'm from, you just don't hear about people moving to Nashville and making it. It was such a foreign thing to me. I never knew music was an option for me.
Basketball was my whole life until I was 20 years old. All I knew was basketball. Then came golf, and I thought that's all I wanted to do then.
I am not drawn to the fairytale kind of love. I am drawn to the real-life experiences between a woman and a man. I try to sing about the way it is, but yet at the same time, what you can hope for between a couple.
I'm treating country music like it's a sport. I'm looking at where my competition is and realized I needed to work on my songwriting.
Just seeing people appreciate what you do, come out and support it, and sing the songs back, there's not a better feeling in the world.
To hear people saying, 'The music you are doing has really touched my life and it's moved me in a lot of ways. It's helped me get through some tough times.' That's the best compliment that you could get.
All I can do is focus on staying true to the style of music I write and sing because that is the only way it's going to come off as honest.
