As far as heroes thorough the years, I’d say definitely Alabama and Randy Owen, Conway Twitty was a big influence of mine, George Strait, Lionel Richie.

I want to be comfortable on TV. If I’m comfortable, they’re comfortable watching me. I think nothing’s more icky than watching icky on TV.

A lot of people don’t have near the amount of success as I’ve been blessed to have, and it’s all about working hard and hoping that continues.

When you look into the eyes of your people out there that came to see you, that’s when it’s like, ‘Yep, this is what it’s all about.’ This is why we don’t sleep, and this is why we write songs and try to be the best. This moment right here onstage.

My dad is very successful in his business. He’s always been big in having hobbies and having little ways to get away. He always made time for hunting and fishing. He always encouraged me to do it.

I think the defining moment in my career is the day that I moved to Nashville – September 1, 2001. That’s the biggest step to getting here is making that move. Anything that happens, the wonderful opportunities that happen to you, can’t happen until you make that move.

I’ll always have songs with a farm connotation on my albums. It’s in the fabric of my music, and I plan to keep it that way.

There’s always gonna be guys who are just wonderful singers and probably shouldn’t be writing songs. Then there’s always gonna be guys who move up the ranks writing. I don’t know what’s healthier or what’s the best thing – probably whatever yields the best songs.

You get weird, funny requests on Twitter. With our fan club, I was seeing a lot of fans were having some issue with the way the fan club tickets were being handled in one of the shows. So I was able to correspond with that fan, and be like, ‘Listen, we’ll be on it.’

Even with all the negativeness of the whole social media thing, I still think it’s leaps and bounds more positive.