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One thing is that I wasn't getting booked that well, and they had control over who got the awards, they had control over who sold. And they really did not want Willie or me, either one, to have a hit record. They wanted the money, but they didn't want us to be the ones.

I was offered seven deals from seven different major labels between 2009-2011, and to be quite honest... nowadays, you need a hit record, a great radio team, an amazing PR firm, social media, a big budget, a team that is ready to work extremely hard, and the drive and passion to win!

The GRAMMY was a huge deal. It's the height of any musical career.

The players in the promotion business today are, by and large, not in it for the art anymore. It's all about how many bucks can you make on a concert.

Not many artists or bands go platinum every year, from what people have told me, so it's an honor to have so many fans. A million people, that's a lot of people! Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Justin Timberlake sell a few million, and so hopefully I'll make my way up to that.

We played at a festival in Mexico City, at the same time as another famous artist, and I reckon we had 55,000 people watching New Order; the other had 7,000. I think from that I've discovered the secret of success in the music industry: don't do any promotion.

It's a blessing and a curse when your first big public album does so well. 'Twentysomething' sold four million copies - I think we were hoping to sell 80,000. And it's still selling. In some ways, you'll always be defined by that.

People weren't buying as many records. My record company did not want me. I went through three record companies, went on tour at the wrong time. It destroyed me.

Winning the ACM, winning the CMA, my first time on the Opry and having Grammy nominations were all a big deal to me.

Even though the popularity and the fanbase is much much greater, and more people have heard about me through things like the Grammys and the Ivors and touring and word of mouth, it doesn't reflect in the sales of the record and doesn't go into my pocket.