Everyone has their own path and you can't judge.

Not to be narcissistic, but I truly believe in order to make yourself better, you should see what you did before and what was good about that and what wasn’t – same way a football team plays a game and then they go back and watch film.

As long as you’re true to you, you believe it and you make others believe it, then what you’re doing is just art. If you give everybody a blank canvas and some paint, not everybody’s picture is going to be exactly the same, but it’s still art. I just do what I do.

But that’s the problem with playing new music sometimes before the record comes out: You have a bunch of yayhoots with opinions.

I started putting down my own pen and spending some time searching for the best songs out there possible. It doesn’t matter if I wrote them or not.

There’s always going to be life experiences that find their way into my songs.

I’m from Florida, so any time I get invited to come to Florida and play a show, I’m definitely always up for that.

I believe a No. 1 song starts happening when it’s believable and validating.

Anytime you put your name on a ticket with nothing else attached to it, that’s the true testament to where you are in your career – how many tickets are sold.

Most people think in order to validate yourself as an artist, you have to write your own songs. I commend the guys that do. I’ve done it. But I also think that you can pick great songs outside that you didn’t write that can help your career.