My dad's a pastor; I grew up in the church, and it's really easy to just have a healthy respect for what some people might be sensitive to.Collection: Respect
I think Valentine's Day is one of those holidays like New Year's where people develop such high expectations that even if it's a decent day, it doesn't live up, and it's disappointing.Collection: Valentines
'In Case You Didn't Know' was written in Mexico, actually, on a songwriter's retreat.
It's really hard to chase a lofty dream.
I always say, 'If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.' I couldn't be happier with where I ended up and how it worked out.
The first country song I ever heard was Tim McGraw's 'Don't Take the Girl.'
My very first tattoo was a crown of thorns around my upper left arm that I have since gotten covered up, because I got it right before Pamela Anderson came out with 'Barb Wire.'
I say this all the time: I've always been really good at managing my expectations so that I'm not let down.
I don't know what it is in me that refuses to quit, but I think it's kind of like, dare to dream.
If something's gonna make you happy, and you know it's gonna make you happy, and it's what you want more than anything in the world, don't let someone else discourage you and talk you out of doing it just because they're doubters.
There's a fundamental difference between how often men remember to say 'I love you' and how often women want to hear 'I love you.' For the most part, it's on the guy. He's not withholding it intentionally. It's just that we kind of miss the point sometimes, that even in the most nonchalant way, telling the person how you feel is important.
There is a lot of California in my... sound, and a ton of it is the laid-back nature of Southern Californians and the beach.
My first concert was Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey.
Californian artists are kind of willing to push the limits a little bit further just because that's kind of our mentality in that state.
I moved to Nashville with the same kind of mindset that I had in L.A., and that is to make sure you don't get outworked by anybody and make sure you're always writing songs and take every opportunity to play that you can.
If I want people to connect to my words and my stories, I need to tell them where they came from. Because then, when you break into song, they have kind of a blueprint for why I wrote that song, so they can come to it with something they went through that helps them connect to it.
It is such a surreal feeling to have my first single go No. 1!
I've never seen my dad come home from work and not walk straight to my mom and ask her about her day.
My parents' example of a loving, caring relationship, I think, has affected my songwriting a ton and allowed me to start writing love songs that people could connect to without sounding like you're being cheesy, because they're coming from a real place, something that I saw coming up. I think they're a huge influence on my songwriting.
It's funny how God will change your plans for you when he's ready.
In Nashville, everybody just wants to write the best songs. So it's a very inviting songwriting community.
I've never been that comfortable with the acting thing. It's difficult for me to separate what's really going on. If there's kissing, that's kissing. I'm not acting; I don't know how.
I try not to take any liberties when it comes to being factual. Sometimes you have to, just to make the song sound good. But I feel like, personally, if you've lived it, then you shouldn't stretch the truth. It should be that experience.
Country music isn't about being better than the guy next to you - it's just making sure that you keep working hard enough to deserve the position that you get in.
There's room for everybody to have success, but the moment I start slacking is the moment people will forget about me.
I tried to mix country music into my sets in L.A., and I noticed that was when people checked out. And I was like, 'That doesn't make sense. The genre that I love the most is the one that doesn't work.'
I was writing and playing in California for 11 years before I moved to Nashville.
I get to share the stage with some of the best.
I've always been pretty in touch with what I'm feeling.
It's always helpful to put things down on paper. That's why I started writing.
When I was young, I would just write poems into textbooks in class. Everybody needs that outlet. For me, I think it's less about learning about myself and more about just needing to get things out sometimes.
I turned on 'One Tree Hill,' heard the opening song, and went, 'I got to know whose voice that is.'
I have the same blankie that I've had since childhood.
The power of a label and radio and a booking agency and all that - you never know until you experience it the first time, but being able to have a song on radio, but then go play a show for people that have heard the song on radio, and having it sung back to you, is - I don't know how to describe it.
For me, I never really understood why certain lines had to be crossed in order to get a point across. There's a PG way to say everything, in my opinion.
The only way to have longevity is to have good songs.
John Mayer will be around forever, like the Eagles and Eric Clapton.
I'm very approachable and want to meet everybody.
I have to be inspired to write a song.
In a very broad statement, or mentality, you just want as many fans as you can have of your music. You want people to write songs for and connect with and play shows for.
We've gotten to play shows where I'm the headliner, so people are buying tickets to come see me, and that's when you really learn, 'Okay, who's listening to this music?' That and social media. But I couldn't feel luckier about the fan base that is starting to grow... People have just been super, super supportive and awesome.
I always loved music, I just never thought of it as a career. Baseball was always my thing.
I knew I would always be an artist, but when you move to Nashville, this is a writer's town. I moved here to focus on that and started pitching demos and immediately was asked to be an artist.
While I don't feel like I'm an evangelist, country music is about to give me a platform, and so keeping it topically acceptable for everybody, I hope that sets some sort of example.
I don't really see why some of those topical lines have to be crossed to get a point across. I want a mother and daughter, a teenage girl and her mom, to be able to come to the show and both enjoy it on the same level.
Gavin DeGraw - his first record is the reason that I wanted to start writing music. The way that he says something that everybody says on a regular basis but he says it differently. It makes you kind of perk up and listen.
The fact of the matter is, if music is something that you want to do, you need to stick with it with the idea that you're going to do it until it works.
It is such a crazy idea that maybe something that I wrote or something that I put on a record would affect people at all.
When it's your words, and then you watch it connect with an audience as the artist, I kinda reflect back on the writing process and why those words were important to me. And to watch people sing it back, I mean, that kinda means everything because that's the whole point for me - performance and songwriting - is to connect with people.
I'm personally a hopeless romantic. I always have been.