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It doesn't really matter to me what the rest of country is doing. I'm not caught up in trying to make a record that sounds like everybody else. That, to me, is a record label's absolute biggest downfall.

I've had big record label presidents look me in the face and say, 'Your music sucks, you don't know who you are, your music is all over the place, and we don't know how to market this stuff. Pick a lane and come back to us.'

I made this record without a record label.

Mostly I've never let record companies become involved with my music, which was a very smart thing that my first manager Dave Robinson did, to keep them out of it.

I hate record labels. They think they know everything. I want to hear them try to sing it.

Those record companies don't know what's happening at all.

I was in a little punk band and we put out a few punk records that weren't very political, at all.

You don't need a record company to turn you into anything.

My record label is treating me like I'm a new artist, which is exciting after all this time.

The people who are competing business-wise out there want what other successful labels and artists have. I don't want what they have; I want my own path, my own sound, my own identity. Record labels care nothing about identity or artistic freedom, they want good business.