I always say just stay positive. If you ever get down on yourself, try to find something that takes away that negative. Always find that positive area.
I usually think about titles. I'll hear somebody say something and write it down in my notes, and whenever we go into a room, somebody will start naming off titles, and whoever has the best title, that's what we start writing.
I just want my hometown talking about where I'm going - like, 'He's killin' it right now,' and, 'I'm so glad he's doin' well,' and I want them to know I'll always come back, every chance I get. I'm not one of those people who'll just leave.
When I first got into country, I was trying to do the traditional country thing, and I still have a heart for traditional country. But the songs I was writing just weren't falling into that category.
I wanted to call it 'Experiment' because it's all kinds of different sounds. We have a bunch of instruments on there that are basically going extinct, like the fiddle, the steel guitar, the slide.
It feels awesome to be a Guinness World Records title holder and to be the first artist to achieve this with Billboard. I remember being in elementary and middle school and looking at the books for all of the records, and I can't believe my name gets to be in there now.
I feel like everybody that saw my videos was like, 'Oh this dude's about to rap.' They just played my videos, and I feel like I shocked a lot of people.
My fans love everything. You can find my fans at a Drake show; you'll find my fans at Post Malone all the way to Pink. They just love music in general.
I definitely see the genre opening up a lot more. I don't know if black people don't want to get into country music or what, but I feel like we're breaking down barriers.
I started going on YouTube and studying everybody who was super popular, from Taylor Swift to Beyonce to Michael Jackson to Chris Brown, just everybody... That's what helped me find my voice and helped me find how I write songs, just doing covers.
It's been neat to find out different writing strategies. I've been in the room with so many different writers. Sometimes, you write with tracks, and other times, with acoustic guitars. That's been really a cool thing, because it brings out different lyrics with you.
That's something that I never thought I would have in a million years. We've done Gold before with 'Used To Love You Sober,' which I thought was awesome, but you don't realize once you get to Platinum, and you see the number difference between 500,000 and a million.
I kept my circle small. I had my friends that I knew wouldn't do anything to hurt me, and I would also stand up for them, and those are still my friends today.