I like things that don't sound particularly processed or mechanical or made by machines. I like music that contains human elements, with all their flaws. There's air in it, and you can hear a room of a bunch of guys playing. Those are the magic parts.

I just try to make the best music that I can. People are going to label it whatever they're going to label it.

I'm a fan of polarization. If you make something that is palatable to everybody, it's like making vanilla ice cream, and I think we have enough of that.

I'm always trying to do as many different things as I can, just so when one is not doing so hot, maybe the other is still there.

I like songs that make me feel tough. Like 'Back in Black.' You want to hear it again and get in a fight.

I went to college a little bit, and that didn't work out, and I didn't finish. So, I would play in bars until I ran out of money, and then I'd get a real job.

I don't look at family and what I do for a living as separate things. They're all kind of one thing, and this is part of their life just like it's part of mine.

I like places that have history in the sense of - you feel responsible to it.

I moved to Nashville to be a songwriter. I found out that was a job, that someone would pay you to sit in a room with a guitar and make up songs! It is the greatest job in the world. I wrote three or four songs a day. That's what I lived for.

I always tell people, 'The music's free. I get paid to travel.'

The goal is always just to write the best song that you can write. I mean, the process for writing a song is the process for writing a song. It's not something I look at it as something I need to do something different.

I was in a band called the SteelDrivers, and we just played hard in vans, hopping on airplanes, not knowing where you're at.

I was born in Fayette County, over in Lexington, Kentucky, but I was raised most of my life in Paintsville.

I always feel that if you're going to cover a song, you should make it your own and flip it on its head.

I think, at some point, all of us - I'm gonna speak personally, not for everybody else - you're gonna feel like a one-trick pony, and you might even be a one-trick pony. But at some point, if it's a really good trick, everybody's still gonna appreciate it.

I'm only worried about what I'm doing or how I present music. I just try to do things I want to listen to, and I think that's what everybody else is try doing, too.

My dad was a very straight arrow, prayed-at-every-meal kind of guy.

Great musicians are great musicians, whether they're playing a trombone or an electric guitar or a xylophone.

College didn't stick, so I worked odd jobs, but I've always written songs and played music. I actually met a guy who was a songwriter, which I didn't realize was a real job.

I had a beard way before it was fashionable.

I used to spend my money on going to Tom Petty concerts.

I've always been in touring bands in some capacity.

I was writing waltzes at a time when the most popular thing was Shania Twain and the very pop edge of country. I didn't really know how to do much of that.

The first time you listen to someone else's interpretation of what you've created, it's a little unnerving. They'll change lyrics or something almost every time. That's them being an artist, and you appreciate it more over time.