To me, country music tells a story about, and deals with, the way people live their lives and what they do.

Country music is me, it's what I've grown up with, and it's what I do.

I think every once in a while country has lost its way, but found its way back. It's always going to drift away from the traditional side, but then find a way to return. There's room for all kinds of influences be it pop, blues, gospel or whatever. But I will always say that I think we need more traditional country music coming down the pike.

That's why we do this. In country music, we do this for this very reason... to impact people lyrically, to be a part of their lives.

One thing we have to remember as songwriters is that we have to consider that country music is the country's music. That doesn't mean that everybody's rural.

As much as the R&B people, and the gospel people, and spiritual music, and the country-western people influenced them, I think the Beatles were the bar. And they set the bar, and nobody's quite been able to jump beyond it.