I don’t think I really have any wisdom. Stay out of trouble. Good luck. Stay away from women because they will burn you, haha.
The ‘Night Train’ has already been a crazy ride for me. We flew around making TV appearances and stadium announcements all over the country, fueled by little more than coffee and adrenaline… so many fans jumped on board with us, and I couldn’t be more thankful.
If you can go out with your live show and turn people on to that, where you have that fan base that’s religious and they’re going to come see you when you’re in that town, once your radio success is gone and you’re not a mainstream guy anymore you can still go out and play your shows.
Country music in the mid-’90s was a big influence on my career, and I played all the songs that are referenced in ”94′ back in my club days. Joe Diffie was rocking a sick mullet, and he was hotter than ever… just putting out monster hit after monster hit. It totally takes me back to those days, and it makes me smile every time I hear it.
I think it’s important for artists to work together. It’s great for fans to see, like, Ludacris came out to our show in Atlanta and kinda made a surprise appearance there, it shows a mutual respect for what each other does.
I’m very particular about the kind of music that I record and sing, and it would be the same way about the kind of movies that I would do.
My mom was a single mom, and she had enough on her plate. I knew when I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to, and I tried to keep her from finding out about it. I did a pretty good job of that.
But for me, I thought you made a record, you got on a bus, went out and played your shows and made a lot of money. That was the way it was supposed to go down. But there’s a lot more to it than that. There are a lot of early mornings, late nights, a lot of traveling, a lot of being away from home, being away from your family.
People see you onstage and the glamorous side, but they don’t see you traveling 600 miles a night, eating truck stop food and spending by yourself staring at walls.