It's good to be proud of your heritage and your culture, but pride can be perverted.
There's not a day goes by that I don't appreciate the freedom that I have to make music and tour and spend time with my family.
I like disagreement because it forces both sides to question their own opinions and why they feel that way.
New experiences give you new perspectives on life.
'Make You Miss Me' is an important song to me. Having it go No. 1 as the fifth single off of my first record is the cherry on top of a chapter in my life I'll never forget.
There's this sort of model that exists in Nashville that we think we have to abide by: You put out a record, and in two years you have to put out another one and have three or four singles. There are all these rules that I've just sort of thrown out the window.
I love what Drake does, but I don't want to be called the Drake of country.
I don't let many things that are superficial keep me in a box.
It wasn't until I was 18, when I was graduating high school, that I went and bought a guitar on a whim.
I got a horse when I was eight or 10 years old. And dad used to take me to the rodeo back home. I got into it big time.
Football sometimes is stressful. Music is more of a kind of laid-back type, chilled-out kind of activity. It kind of keeps me balanced, I guess.
I wrote a song several years ago while I was in college called 'Muscadine Wine.' I really didn't know if it had potential or not, if it was good or bad or what. I played it for my roommates - who I played ball with - one night, and I knew they would tell me the truth. They loved it, and that encouraged me.
As much as I enjoy traveling and playing on stage as an artist, I really find my true sense of purpose in a room writing a song.
My route is a little bit nontraditional. A lot of the people working in Nashville, they have a model. I don't really fit into that.
I think that people in general appreciate honesty and not trying to cook something up just to fit a mold that would be beneficial for you. I never made music like that.
I've always really liked the rhythm element of songs.
The money factor had been kind of my excuse as to why I hadn't put out any music. So I just found the cheapest way to make music and get it to people, and that was via the Internet.
I experimented and explored ways to find my own niche in Nashville, and I was having trouble with it for a while because stylistically, I didn't feel like I necessarily fit in.
In a small town, it's either sports or a band with your buddies. I was always athletic. But in college, I was exposed to all this new music, and I was drawn to hip-hop and R&B.
Maybe one day music will just be music, and there won't be these categories; it'll just be different shades of music.
