I put a lot of time into making sure my relationship with my family is well taken care of because I want to be as successful as a father as I am as an entertainer.

If someone wants a picture, I'm so honored and so flattered, and I hope I have a reputation as someone who goes out of his way to do those kinds of things.

I feel like I've got a nice little niche where I stay just below the radar, which is perfect. I just don't want to be known for anything other than music.

Where I'm at in my relationship with my wife or my family and life in general, I feel like it all comes out in the music. Hopefully, it's always there, but in an ambiguous and abstract way and not real straightforward.

I don't think my music has changed to reflect getting married or having kids. But... if you want to continue to write your own songs, you've got to find deeper stuff to write about. You've got to go to different places.

If you got in my truck, you were listening to country music, and that's the way it was for a long time. I'm a little more open to other sources of music now, a lot more. But for the formative years, I was just very into country.

In my 30s, I became more open to music other than country or bluegrass.

I'm surrounded by all these strong women - my publicist, my manager, and my wife - and sometimes I think that women are more evolved than men, and they are able to process a heartache better.

I put a lot of pressure on myself. I tell my wife when she's listening to my songs that the slightest hint of whether she likes it or not puts the pressure on me.

The people I always loved listening to had a little bit of dirt under their fingernails because they had done some living and had these stories to talk about.

Being married is one thing, but having kids will completely change you. I still go out and hang with my buddies, but having two daughters will completely change your perspective on the world.

Most of my read on America is through looking through the front windshield of a bus and hanging out with country music fans backstage.

My wife is cool enough to let me write about personal things, to be a songwriter exploring the shadowy sides of love.

I love singing fun songs; I've built a career on them.

I try to make sure to get off the bus as much as I can, try to do something during the day that's local to where I am, whether it's hiking or fishing.

A typical day for me on tour is a marathon - it's like five days rolled into one.

I can act... well, kind of. I'm comfortable in front of a camera.

I got into rock music at thirteen, listening to Van Halen, learned how to play the electric guitar.

I really can't tell you the feeling I feel, like, being on stage: it's such a high; it's like running a marathon. You just can't get that feeling anywhere else.

It's not that you can do this calculated move to try to further your career. You just follow what's in your heart, and later you look back and go, 'I was either really dumb or really smart, I can't believe I did that.'

I do see the world as being different for girls - especially now, having daughters.

Whether lyrically or musically, it reaches in there and grabs your soul. That's the stuff I gravitate toward.

That's what we get to do as songwriters, right? You get to explore stuff.

I think I've claimed the right to be any version of me that I want to be.