My kids don't listen to me when I preach at them. But if I tell them a story they can pull something from, that matters.
There's a social piece to what's going on in the Sugarland world, but we've never been a band that's political, and I maintain that.
I'm not necessarily in a vocation where I'm at risk; it's not like I'm a police officer. I'm a musician, so when I leave home, my family expects me to come back.
You do things for your kids you won't do for yourself.
Sugarland was a band we started to try to make things better. It was in the aftermath of 9-11; it was in the aftermath of my mother dying... there was a lot of weird stuff that had gone on that made you want to start something good.
It's hard not to go back and look at my songwriting catalog and go, 'Look, there are 600 to 700 songs here.'
There's an identity thing that goes on where you spend so much time caring for your child that, after a year or so, you have to shake it off and go, 'Who am I?'
As a promoter, of course, you'd really want the people who pay for the tickets to come into your venue to really be even more connected with the band.
I love writing music for film and TV, but putting it into a video game is twice as fun because it needs to be repeatable and joyous.
It's a great place to be as an artist: if you confuse your label, you're doing your job.
My voice has a lot of character and kind of doesn't sound like a lot of people's.
I've always tried to put a little message in my music.
There is a misconception that I've experienced in my life about people that live in the South. I got sent away to school in Connecticut in the late Eighties, and kids were honestly asking me, 'Do people there wear shoes?'
I always tell people that it's so much harder to make a happy song than a sad one.
My father was an officer in the Army, and my grandfather served in World War II, and I am so proud of their service. I'll always do whatever I can to support our troops.
Billy Pilgrim music is very emotional. It's one part the craft we learned from people like the Indigo Girls and R.E.M., and one part the Tom Waits craft, where you're trying to create a moment.
