I chose taking the hard road and creating my own niche and getting my own fan base.

In country, you can grow old with your fans. You can still do shows when you're 70.

My whole game plan, at first, was I wanted to rock out as hard as I could because usually you're old by the time you're 24.

This is just what I do, play music and create sounds and all that good stuff.

I've always said I'm gonna work the road as hard as I can 'til I'm 50, then I might slow down a little bit.

I don't like to tell people what they should or shouldn't do.

I'm a very respectful person.

I want to be able to deliver the kind of show that I want - to go onstage with my chin held up.

No other Hank Williams has ever screamed like I have. I guess that's my way of officially being me.

That's part of it: You can't be a country singer-songwriter if you've never had an official heartbreak.

I have never had a business mind.

Radio can break you.

Most people do their shows and get the hell out, and don't even care about the fans.

I always do my show and say hello. And a lot of people are standing around waiting to shake my hand and say thanks for, A, letting me talk to you, and letting me feel a part of what you do.

I know I'm a sinner.

I live wild and free and reckless, but that's the price you have to pay for rock.

I just hope I'll live to 60, and then I'll turn to the Lord and say, 'I'm ready for you now. I got all the time in the world to start making it up to you now.'

I never did figure on being a college man.

Minneapolis, in general, has been there with me since the beginning. They made me feel important before I really even had a foundation. I think a lot of it has to do with it's such an intense music city in its own right.

Man, I live out 90 percent of my songs and the other 10 percent... once in a while, I'll put myself in someone else's shoes and try to go down that road.

My mom was always playing Elvis around the house or ZZ Top, so there was always rock-n-roll and country being played.

Energy wise, playing the drums was a lot of fun; I just felt like it was a natural fit for me.

If I was just a country singer, I wouldn't be near as cool and I wouldn't have nowhere near as cool of a fan base.

I thank God for all the independent hard rock that I grew up with.

I take pride in the fact that a guy and a gal can come to my show, have a couple of beers and still go home with a little money in their pockets.

I am from a rebel blood line.

I'll tell you, Nashville ruined country music.

I write about the dark and the happy.

We are kind of country, but we do cater to louder kinds of music.

Mike Patton is my mentor, and he releases two to five records a year with many different bands, and he gets stuff done.

If you look at how much Hank Williams did by 29 years old, it makes you feel pretty worthless.

I'll never outdo Hank Williams. That's impossible.

Pop country is about being so clean and perfect and not having any rough edges or imperfections. It's all manufactured.

We're bringing together the country folks and the rockers.

We definitely get respect as far as the musicianship, working hard and being road dogs.

I'm the kind of guy if you ask me a question I'll tell you the truth if it's hurting me or not. If it's good or bad, I'll cut to the chase and that's the way it is.

I could have took the easy way and just been a cowboy, looking good, trying to make my money off Hank Williams and being this clean-cut guy. But I always wanted to be myself and go against the grain.

There's only one Hank Williams, man. Singing that high-voiced style, them bluegrassers, I don't see how they do it - Jimmy Martin, Bill Monroe - it's just a natural thing, man.

George Jones, Johnny Paycheck all them dudes they're respected and they were twice as crazy as I'll ever be.

I've got an addictive personality.

The true Hank III fans want me to be me.

The only thing I got of my granddaddy's is a necktie.

If I'm opening up for George Jones or playing a complete honky-tonk, I do true country music. But if it's a complete rock club, I'll do some country and a little bit of this hillbilly acoustic country metal or whatever it's called.

I write a song for me and I sing a song for me - no one else.

I can't really change Nashville.

I'm just gonna keep doing what I do, and hopefully not make too many people mad.

I could put in garage doors or work in McDonald's but that's it. So I figured I might as well play the Nashville game.

He doesn't know how to be warmer. I can't blame him. My dad had to deal with more stuff than I ever did.

If Hank Williams had lived any longer, his name would have been one of the most hated in the land. Nashville would have dug him deep.

When I'm making a record, I'm trying to take people through different moods.