The truth is, I mostly thought about 'Accidental Racist' in terms of my fans. This song was meant to generate discussion among the people who listen to my albums. What I was most worried about is that my fan base would think that I was preaching to them.
Alison Krauss is definitely my favorite singer that's ever lived. I've never heard anyone like her.
I jetset around and play these songs and get to hang with some pretty amazing people, then I go home to a really great farm, though actually it's a disaster area of a farm at the moment. But it's certainly a blast. I wouldn't trade lives with anyone right now.
Country music has become the music that best represents the reality of American life.
That there's no more important decision in life than who you marry.
Some of the worst selfies I've ever seen are at Auschwitz or Ground Zero.
Even on the most serious ballads, I'll throw in a tongue-in-cheek remark.
When you hear a banjo through stutter edit, it's the coolest thing you ever heard.
The Stones were a big influence on me and the Beatles, obviously.
My father's a firefighter. He was my whole life. And my brother-in-law and several family members are firefighters.
If a little kid picks up Guitar Hero and learns 'Smoke On The Water,' he soon finds out that if he wants the chicks to look at him, he'd better learn it on the guitar!
You're going to get flak if you tell the wrong joke, but it's still the wrong joke. Give the wrong speech, you take it on the chin.
I tended to lean towards the guys who both sang and played, such as Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Steve Wariner... And at the other end of the spectrum, I had Eric Clapton in a rock and blues sense, jazz guys such as Tal Farlow and Les Paul... Then Chet Atkins-type stuff.
I'm the smart aleck. The class clown. I'm the guy who does the song nobody expects.
I like it when two sounds complement each other but are way different on a record.
When you're a creative person, there are just times when you're not listening. You know, I could be looking right at you and thinking about something else.
I feel sort of really aware of how the... online cyber world has begun to take over reality.
You have different stages in your career where you have different things to prove. And early on, like most people who move to Nashville, I wanted to prove that I belonged here, that I belonged in this format, that I had a love for it.
No one dislikes LL Cool J. If you meet LL Cool J, you fall in love with LL Cool J. LL and I had mutual friends, and he and I had always talked about doing something. My fans know LL's music. And I love him - we're blood brothers at this point. We've been through the fire together. I know no finer person.
My dad was president of the volunteer fire department, which was within walking distance to our house. I spent several days of each week there with him - any time the whistle blew, he went. It was truly inspiring to watch him lead that way.
