I think that you can love people without it being the great love.
I think that when you're making your way up in the music industry, you have all these heroes and the reasons why they are your heroes. As soon as you get into the industry, your guidelines change a little bit. For me, my heroes now are great people first and great artists second.
I think when people make a record with a goal in mind - like taking it to the next level or making them seem more mature - that gets in the way of writing great songs.
Relationships are like traffic lights. And I just have this theory that I can only exist in a relationship if it's a green light.
I have to practice to be good at guitar. I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.
I have to work really hard to get the record deal - I have to spend years at it to get good. I have to practice to be good at guitar.
I base a lot of decisions on my gut, and going with an independent label was a good one.
I never read one hateful thing said about me by some 12 year old. So I got to live an actual life. And I've kept that mentality. Just because there's a hurricane going on around you doesn't mean you have to open the window and look at it.
As soon as I accomplish one goal, I replace it with another one. I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I just say to myself, 'All right, well, I'd like to headline a tour,' and then when I get there, we'll see what my next goal is.
I've been my mom's kitchen helper since I was a little kid.
I have this really high priority on happiness and finding something to be happy about.
Writing 'We Are Never Getting Back Together' was one of the most hilarious experiences I have ever had in the studio because it just happened so naturally.
Faith Hill is a big role model.
I go to Wal-Mart all the time. The one in my hometown of Hendersonville, Tenn., is open 24 hours, so I go there a lot to buy DVDs and stuff like that.
As supportive as my hometown is, in my high school, there are people who would probably walk up to me and punch me in the face. There's a select few that will never like me. They don't like what I stand for. They don't like somebody who stands for being sober, who stands for anything happy. They're going to be negative no matter what.
As I grow up, the lessons I learn in love and relationships and how we treat each other are hopefully maturing - hopefully.
And if you're horrible to me I'm going to write a song about you and you are not going to like it. That's how I operate.
I can say I'd honestly rather be happy than have 30 to 40 songs that I've written about these thrilling, exciting, horrible, unhappy times.
I never write about the road. I never write about hotels or anything like that.
I love hugging people. I still hug everybody in my meet-and-greet lines.