I worked at a hospital parking cars and getting folks in and out of the hospital as they would come in for their appointments.
I played quarterback, and it was a leadership position, and even though I'm doing a solo thing now, a lot of my success is a part of assembling this team of people who are really, really talented, and their position doesn't put them out front the way mine does, but it's still a team effort.
I don't know where my fashion sense comes from, exactly. I've always been interested in, not necessarily being unique, but not necessarily sticking to the preexisting paradigm - whether it be clothes or music or whatever.
I was a product of the relationships with my family, the environment I grew up in; all those things I kind of put on the back burner when I got into music, and my life all changed dramatically.
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.
'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.
I'm conflicted about the lyric tattoo thing. I feel like that's a lifetime decision, and I always feel like, 'I hope you don't regret this a couple years from now when you get tired of that song.'
It took me a couple years to get over the stereotype I was letting myself get caught up on, being a football player trying to start a career in music.
I realized after writing songs for years how important it is. Whether it provides a living for me or not, that creative outlet is something I need.
You want to stand out and be unique and do something different. I always try to zig when they zag - I guess it's a football term, but it applies to a lot of different areas of life.
Prior to getting into music, I interacted with, on a daily basis, about 5-10 percent of the people that I've interacted with since then. I've been meeting people from different backgrounds and different cultures. That did allow for a lot of change. I've changed as a product of that, but it's been positive.
I like to come up with lots of different sounds. So the final version of a song might have been 10 completely different songs before we finally got it right.
I like disagreement because it forces both sides to question their own opinions and why they feel that way.
My golf game is lacking big time.
A lot of the lessons that are taught in football will promote success in anything you get into after football; for me, it just happens to be music. Being disciplined. Good character. Trying to do the right thing, and working hard.
It wasn't until I was 18, when I was graduating high school, that I went and bought a guitar on a whim.
After graduating college, I was coming out of a routine I'd been in for several years, all the way back to high school. It was a year-round process of constantly having to work and be disciplined, and I was able to understand and connect the dots between all those characteristics - especially hard work and success.
A lot of times, songs can blend together on the radio because there's so many great songs out there.
I didn't know what to expect, having not been an artist before. From the outside, you only see romantic snapshots of what seems like a great lifestyle, and it is, but it's also grueling.
To all my people back in Nashville who have been there from the start, you put your faith in me. You were there for the long haul.
