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" My standing gig in college was playing the El Chico patio on Murfreesboro Road. I got $100, tips, and free quesadillas. "

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" One of the first records I bought for myself was a Keith Whitley record. I still love the 'L.A. to Miami' album. There were so many things on there - 'Miami, My Amy,' 'Ten Feet Away,' 'Nobody in His Right Mind Would've Left Her.' I can put that album on repeat and listen. "

" If you were to ask me when I was 17 if I was mad because I didn't have a deal, I would have probably said, 'Yeah.' Now I'm so glad I got it when I got it. People tell you to be patient and wait. Patience is not a virtue of mine, but I think everything definitely happened the right way for me. "

" I write a lot of my music, but not all of it. I have always subscribed to the 'best song wins' theory when making an album. "

" The only thing I want to be known as is a country singer. I want people to hear it and go, 'That's country!' "

" I'm a sucker for a sad song. "

" I really love something that's strong vocally and a little more difficult to sing because it's fun. "

" Some of my favorite records growing up were Christmas albums. The ones I liked best were the albums that you could listen to from start to finish. You could put them on while you're decorating the tree or driving around looking at Christmas lights. "

" I studied and sang lot of jazz when I was growing up. I think that plays a little bit into some of the things I do vocally, notes that I pick in chords. "

" Any time I'm trying to find that groove on a big tempo song, I go back and listen to some Aerosmith records. 'Love in an Elevator,' 'Rag Doll,' all that stuff was really great music. It's something that I still dig and go back and listen to. "

" I think the biggest way of connecting with people is through your music and kind of saying what you want to say as an artist. And hopefully, you're making something that someone's going to be like, 'This is my favorite song.' That's always your goal, I think, anybody in any genre. "

" When I was making my second record, I was in studio, and I was like, 'No more ballads! Absolutely not!' And somebody walked in with 'The Man I Wanna Be' and I heard it and was like, 'Ah, crap!' "

" It's amazing to me how often the answer to making something sound better is to play something less. "

" I'm really loud. I can't sing softly. "

" I played a funeral convention once. York Casket Company pays well, in case anyone's wondering! "

" I love playing music. There's no way I could do anything else. "

" Everybody influences everybody else, in my opinion. There are different trends in music all the time. No matter who starts them, if it's a true trend in the music, it ends up influencing other people as well. "

" I grew up loving Vince Gill. That guy sounds just like his record - or better than his record. I've always been such a fan. "

" My favorite part is, once a song is out there to the public, having someone come up and tell their own story about why one of your songs resonated with them. It's an incredible feeling. "

" We didn't have a whole lot of cash growing up. My mom was a single parent for a while before my stepdad came into the picture. "

" The only piece of advice I've ever given anybody is learn to write songs and write as many songs as you can. Because it's never gonna hurt, and when you run into that problem of, 'God, I don't know what I want to say,' or the opposite problem of, 'I know exactly what I want to say, but no one has written it,' then you can just go write it yourself. "

" In my opinion, that's one of the hardest things to do in songwriting: crafting a song that speaks to you but, at its core, is a simple concept. "

" There's probably a couple someones that are gonna hear the songs and go, 'I think that might have been about me,' or, 'I know it's about me.' I do play that pretty close to the vest. I don't think I'm ever gonna write a song and drop somebody's name in it. "

" My biggest ritual is writing at home more than on the road. I do very little writing on the road. Actually, it's funny to bring this into it, but one thing I always do is have a cup of coffee. I drink the most coffee when I'm writing songs. "

" I'm a huge fantasy football fan. "

" Finding new books to read and relaxing is what I enjoy when I do have some time to spend on my own. "

" I go home, and there's dust on everything because I'm never there. "

" Everybody has their favorite sad songs. That's part of what I love so much about country music. Country music is never afraid to go with a sad song. "

" I'm a big fan of breakfast food. Literally, the simplest thing in the world - if you can scramble eggs without burning them, I'll eat them. It doesn't matter what time of the day it is. "

" Everybody's like, 'You're tall. You didn't play basketball?' They asked me when I was a freshman in high school, and basketball practice was the same time a lot of stuff happened with choir. And I picked choir, which, normally, people would scratch their heads at, but it worked out okay. "

" Your family are people you lean on and learn from. When I told my family I wanted to do music, they were really supportive. "