I always just try to write the best songs that I can at any given time, and sometimes those songs are for me, and sometimes they're for other people. And that's to be evaluated after the fact.

If there's one kind of music that makes somebody happy, how is that a bad thing? And if there's another kind that makes somebody else happy, how is that a bad thing? I don't get why anybody cares about what they don't like so much.

Why would you want to dictate somebody else's taste or happiness? Music is supposed to be joyful and move people, and however that gets accomplished for different people, it's all good.

I like the old days when, if I wrote a song and I recorded it, it didn't mean somebody else couldn't record it.

Among my dad's generation, when you gave another man a pocketknife as a gift, it was a show of respect. I'll still give someone the knife out of my pocket.

I like to fish. I collect pocketknives. I inherited a nice collection from my father and grandfather.

My favorite record of all time is Tom Petty's 'Wildflowers.' I hold it as the standard - in terms of sonics, sequencing, and songs. It shows that making a complete record is important, rather than just making a single.

I get tired of people trying to dog out the radio for not playing this or that. There are lots of people who like what they play - otherwise, they wouldn't play it.

My wife has great taste in everything but men. The vast majority of the songs on my debut album, 'Traveller,' came from lists she made.

When you're writing with an artist or for an artist, you have to help them serve their vision. That's the cool part about writing songs. There are no rules.

I am always interested in making myself as uncomfortable as I can. Sometimes I ask myself, 'Can I stand onstage and sing this song and sell it?' Sometimes I can't. In a room, you get to pretend a little bit and step outside of yourself.

The show isn't about screens, and we don't have any video content or lasers or things blowing up. I want people to come to our show to listen. I want the show to be the music.

I was a car salesman, if you can believe it.

I didn't know they would pay you money to sit in a room and write songs for other people. I always thought that George Strait was singing a song, he made it up, and that was the end of it. But the instant I found that out, that that could be a job, I thought, 'That's the job for me. I gotta figure out how to do that.'

I always like to write the songs, and they get turned loose into the world, and who knows what happens to them. That's the joy of being a songwriter. You get to hear what other people do, interpretation-wise.

I didn't have any expectations with 'Traveller' - I don't think anybody did. That's how I prefer the process to be.

If you think about what everyone else will think, you forget to just make music.

I can pass myself off as a 'Duck Dynasty' impersonator a lot.

I'm always just looking to get back to the joy of playing music, and keeping it simple, as much as I can.

It's man's work. My dad was gone at 4:30 in the morning and home at 8 at night, and he worked underground, and the last mine he worked in was 26 inches high in a lot of places. He liked the engineering of it - he liked the moving the earth and being able to extract something and put it back for reclamation. He enjoyed the whole process.

Everybody likes to listen to a song because it's fun, and nobody wants to sit around and listen to 'I-really-have-to-analyze-these-lyrics' songs all the time.

I don't see myself as some kind of fightin'-the-good-fight guy. But I always feel like if you don't like one kind of music or the other, it's just not for you.

I want the dude in the top row to feel like he's down there on the front row in a club.

It's a unique thing, and it's probably the thing I love most about songs and music - their ability to connect in a human way.

It's nice to see people invest in what you do as an artist and sing the songs back at you and feel something. You get to feel something more than what you were feeling when you made the record.

I'm a fan of records. I'm a fan of listening to something cover to cover and not wanting to skip over anything.

My earliest memories of music are probably my dad listening to a bunch of outlaw country, but also old R&B and Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin. But, you know, I had rock phases and liked more modern R&B acts. I've always listened to all kinds of music, and I like all kinds of music.

There are great songs out there, and if I love them, and I know them, I'm going to sing them just because that's what songs are for.

I don't make records to win awards. I make records to make records and hopefully make the records as good as they can be.

I'm not going to ask musicians to sit there and pretend to play. It feels insulting to the musicians to me.

I like more of the club mentality, where we're playing, and if we feel like we want to play a cover, we'll switch to that.

I'm not reinventing the wheel here. I'm not Chuck Berry or Bill Monroe. Guys like that are from outer space.

I don't look at it as mainstream country versus outsider.

I don't know that my voice ever makes sense anywhere, necessarily. I would sing bluegrass music, and I don't fit in there; I would sing rock music, and I'm probably a little too hillbilly for that. And country, I'm too much rock n' roll for there sometimes.

Everybody gets through a phase where it's, 'Ah, if I could just sound just like Vince Gill.' Then you figure out that you have your own voice, whether you like it or not, and that's what you should stick with.

If I have a talent, it lies in the creative process.

Everybody's got a story on their beards. I guess it's just a way of finding common ground with people you otherwise might not know.

For me, the more time you can take and the more care you can take with songs, the better off you're going to be.

I've always believed you should sing songs you can really put yourself into. I think the emotion you put into it is just as important as singing the notes.

I don't ever view myself as a straight country act, and I don't think the straight country acts view me as a straight country act, either - but I certainly belong to them.

I love music so much, and I love musicians - I love singers. It's fun. That's what music's supposed to be. Fun.

My dad could hold a tune. He wasn't necessarily a singer, but he did love music, and he listened to it quite loud in the car.

The curse of being a songwriter is that's you're always at work. I could look out the window right now and see something that would make me want to write.

I don't think country music needs saving from anything.

I like all kinds of music. But I would rather people stop caring about lines.

I think it's OK if somebody likes my music and likes Sam Hunt's music, too. And I think if we're both selling records, it's good for everybody. I think it allows other records to get made.

I'm gonna keep making music that hopefully I think is good, and whatever comes out of that, that will be fine with me.

Anybody who has ever played in bars has played 'Keep Your Hands to Yourself.' It's a monumental piece of rock & roll. It makes you feel exactly like rock & roll is supposed to make you feel.

I grew up less than a mile from folks that lived in shacks with dirt floors. I certainly know that there are needs in this country. Not too far from your house, if you look around, people need to be helped.

Anyone who says it's so easy to write a country hit and that it's just a formula - well, try it sometime. If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it.