Quote

After my first No. 1 song back in 2006, I worried I may never have another one.

I get so excited when a song I wrote that's very personal to me goes No. 1 and I look down and see people singing the words back to me.

Feeling has as much to say as the words do. You can have the greatest words in the world and if they're not believable, they don't strike a chord and they're not said convincingly, it's not a great song.

I am a person who thinks about the music first in trying to achieve something musically valid.

A song sometimes ends up with its own internal logic.

Every song I've ever written has been based in reality, based in fact, things that happen to me.

Sometimes ideas are coming so fast that I have to stop doing one song to get another. But I don't forget the first one. If it works, it will always be there. It's like the truth: it will find you and lift you up. And if it ain't right, it will dissolve like sand on the beach.

To have your first No. 1 as an artist was everything I could have ever dreamed for. Now we're keeping our fingers crossed, and hopefully we'll have many more, but there's certainly nothing like the first one.

You can keep rummaging around until you find a song you like, but you can't predict whether it'll hit or not.

Music is always occurring. It is just a matter of marketing, attention, and many other factors, that determines whether people will hear these songs or not.