“I’ve seen’em. A LOT. I know those emotions I write about ‘cause I’ve lived with all of them When I sit down to pour my heart out, pour my life out, this is what comes out – and I’ve led a life of extremes. But I’ve come to a place in my life where I have to tell the truth…

“You know, I’m not some suburban kid… My father spent 7 years in Leavenworth and came out breathing fire – and I was his oldest son, so I learned to breathe fire, too. But because of my mother, I’ve gone just as far the other way. So music’s my equalizer, and it lets me hit both of those extremes hard without giving into one or the other – from religious school to Gary Stewart’s beer joints.”


“For me, there’s a certain void of unrest, a hunger that will never be satisfied – and that battle to maintain some kind of balance... that’s what ‘Red Dirt Road’ was about. ‘Red Dirt Road; defined everything for me: beer and Jesus, so you better get in the middle ‘cause that’s where the fire burns the hottest! Too much to one or the other, it’ll burn out; that’s the challenge.”

“Hillbilly Deluxe is very much a coming of age for us – who we are, what we have to say. Just doing it,”