It's really cool to know that you've put something together that isn't for a particular audience. It's so often that a TV show can really only speak to one sect of the population and this really is something that appeals to a worldwide fan base. People who are into the pursuit of knowledge. Their reaction has meant the world to us.
I think it's really cool to embrace the pain of something that may have hurt you and be able to express it through music.
There is something exciting about being in an environment in which it's really cool to be smart.
I have this idealistic and maybe naive thought that almost any song can be anything. If you record one song today it would maybe be exciting and cool. But I could record the same song next week and it would be something completely different.
What we do every night is we change out the set list as much as we can to make sure that (fans can) go home and tell their friends they experienced something unique and cool.
I'm not that into reading. If I'm gonna read I'm gonna read some cool sci-fi book or something not some stupid self-help book.
Even as a kid if I would come across something cool in the record store that would be how I found out about bands. It's kind of the same way these days. In a way even less because there are no record stores to go to anymore.
The simplest way to do something cool is the cross-turn. Like in the '80s - Michael Jackson did it. You jump and cross your legs together at the same time and then spin out of it. That's it.
Unless something real cool comes along I will probably be doing features so long as I can make a living doing that. Otherwise I will do another show.
Don't get me wrong magic is cool. But a nervous mother singing to her child at night while something moves quietly through the dark outside her house? That's a story. Handled properly it's more dramatic than any apocalypse or goblin army could ever be.
I think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and be an artist when I was 10. And I started dragging my parents to festivals and fairs and karaoke contests and I did that for about a year before I came to Nashville for the first time. I was 11 and I had this demo CD of me singing Dixie Chicks and Leanne Rimes songs.