Musician

You gotta have a good beat to survive in modern country in general. Everyone wants to feel good, laugh, dance, and cry. But at the same time, they all want it to sound happy.

If you can take a piece of life and put it in a song, it's going to be a good song - especially if it's from the heart.

My music is my No. 1, and I've got people who believe in me and keep me going. I'm thankful.

As a songwriter, you always want to search for something that's right in front of you that you can twist into something new.

I'd like to start a tradition of getting No. 1s - how 'bout that?

We're boot-friendly here.

'Swagger' would be the word for 'Dirt On My Boots.' With the real funky drum loop and the ganjo rolling down, and then the fiddles and the guitar and steel, it really took an old school style where it's fiddle, steel, guitar, and mixed it with a drum loop.

I started playing guitar by the time I was 9.

I was a huge Garth Brooks fan.

As a songwriter, you always want to search for something that's right in front of you that you can twist into something new.

'Head Over Boots' is a shuffle, but it's more of a Motown laid-back shuffle than, say, a Dwight Yoakam shuffle.

I've really been studying lyrics, printing out lyrics to songs I love and reading them like a letter.

I love performing, and if I didn't love it, I wouldn't be doing it.

Take everything you can from what people say. Keep going and stick to your instincts. And what your soul tells you to do, use that.

I love coming back around Northern California.

I'm more of a songwriter. I love writing songs. I love writing my songs. It's always been writing for me, and it makes it different when you're writing for yourself.

It's always a good feeling to be recognized for something.

I love having those lyrics that at first make you think it's about one thing, but it's really about something so much more.

There's a connection when people are dancing, laughing, and singing, and that definitely happens with 'Head Over Boots.'

My California sunrise, there's a real mist in the air. I think of the mountains. You can smell the farm fields. You can smell the dirt and the lights and the whole sun.