A million-selling, Grammy-nominated country music artist whose songs have hit #1 on the charts five times. Amazingly, he has had his songs recorded by Hall of Famers and Grammy winners in five different genres, including Travis Tritt, Timothy Schmitt of The Eagles, and more. He has also been a contributing author for eight books. And, he received the prestigious Bob Hope “Spirit of Hope” medal from the USO following his eleven tours and over 150 performances for Service men and women deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Korea. He is a singer, songwriter, guitar player with over 2500 performances in 19 countries during a 30-plus-year career.
"In a sense, you get to a certain point in your career where you think, well, 'You've had the success, why would you go out and hustle something else?' ... When people reach a certain level of success, sometimes you can assume that they quit doing the things that got them there, and I don't think that's the case. There's certain good habits."
"When you have an idea, act on it! There's a great quote that says, 'It's easier to steer a moving car.' Right? Get going! Get going! It may not turn out, in fact, chances are it won't turn out the way that you thought it would. Most things in my life haven't turned out the way that I thought they would - many of them turned out better."
"The people that are buying tickets are coming for a party, if you will, and you're the soundtrack for the party."
"That's what a musical director is, somebody who puts the show together, makes sure that the band is where they need to be when they need to be. It's sort of like being the manager, if you will, in a sense. You're really involved in helping to ensure a high level of performance."
"Be careful that you don't take unto yourself the honor that's given to the award."
"What's funny is, how much the music business has changed. Twenty years ago I think we spent close to 350 thousand dollars to make my first album... As a perspective... we did this new album in Nashville with many of the same players that played on the first record twenty years ago in a great studio. And if you put the new record up next to the old record you wouldn't hear any difference in the money. And I won't tell you what we made the new record for, but I'll say this - it was staggeringly, significantly less amount of money than we made the first record for. And it's just sort of the nature of the business. Things are changing and things don't cost as much as they used to anymore."
"The funny thing is, about creative people, I don't think any creative person that I know is just creative in one area... Some of the best painters I know are some of the greatest songwriters I know."
"My mission has been, really for whatever time that I have on this planet, is to try to be available to make contributions into people's lives."
"We did over 150 performances in deployment areas and had some crazy experiences - shot at and bombs going off."
"Drink, Swear, Steal & Lie"
"From Here to Eternity"