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My definition of country music is really pretty simple. It's when someone sings about their life and what they know, from an authentic place.

A good country song takes a page out of somebody's life and puts it to music.

You have the ability to write melodies and to put lyrics that mean something: to speak about life and what people are going through in their every day ups and downs, the good times and the bad times. Country music has always talked about life, I think; that's what I've always loved about it.

I do think I'm country, but your definition of that word might be different from my definition. In my opinion, country music, the sound of country, has always evolved. But the one thing that has not changed is the story element. And I think country songs are truthful songs about life written by country people.

To me, country music's about life. It's about Monday through Friday. It's the blue-collar, 40-hour week, songs about life. It used to have more of a sound, but I think the heart of that's still the same. It's still American music.

To me, country music tells a story about, and deals with, the way people live their lives and what they do.

Well the country songs themselves are three-chord stories, ballads which are mostly sad. If you are already feeling sorry for yourself when you listen to them they will take you to an even sadder place.

Country music is the people's music. It just speaks about real life and about truth and it tells things how they really are.

One of the things that I think is such a constant in country music is that the song is so much a story. I believe it is supposed to be based around a story.

The word matters in country music, and it always has. And everybody had lived those words in country songs.