(Brett James / Aimee Mayo)

This album is more autobiographical than any album I’ve ever done. It is a lot more about who I am, a truer depiction of me. I wanted it to showcase my personality, and that includes rockers like this. So many of my hits were ballads, but I’m trying to remind people that the biggest hit I’ve ever had was “19 Somethin,’” and this song is very much in that vein.

This song brings to mind childhood memories. It’s a very visual song, upbeat, positive with a great message. It reminds us to remember our past but always stay in the moment.  

(Willie Mack / Keith Brown / Steve Mandile)

I still think back to the first day I heard “Entertaining Angels.” I thought, “What power.” Think about it. Everybody’s had that “poor, poor pitiful me” day. Maybe you go into a bar and think about how, “the whole world is against me. I’m at my lowest point right now.” Two people are sitting next to you. One guy is dying and one guy just lost his family. And you realize at that point, “Yeah, I had a bad day at work, and I’m in a job I don’t really like. But I have so much to be thankful for. There’s so much more to life than that.” It’s a real healing song.

(Jeffrey Steele/ Bart Allman)
 I think a lot of people can relate to “Closer.”  This song creates a picture of someone who wakes up and looks around at his life and feels like he’s gotten away from what he thought he’d be.  His own expectations may have not fit like he had planned but he’s closer to the things in life that have real meaning--.friends, family, and God.

(Rivers Rutherford / Troy Verges / Aimee Mayo)

I just love “Panama City” because it is so much fun. It reminded me a lot of “Jump” or some of the old Van Halen stuff I heard when I was 15 or 16 years old, cruising up and down the beach in Panama City. I wanted to have a summer fun song on the record, because I’ve lived them. My summer vacations were spent at either Daytona Beach or Panama City. So this was a natural. It fit my “personality profile” for this album, something fun that was also of real substance about me growing up. That’s little Joanna Jenet wailing in the background, giving it that extra attitude.

(Jim Collins/Wendell Mobley) 

This is a total chic song! It describes a man taking care of his woman after she’s had a bad day.  It’s about letting the woman escape from her world. For her to let go, let her hair down and take all her frustrations out on the man in her life that she loves.  

(Bryan Simpson / Ashley Gorley)

I have the perfect cast if we ever shoot a video for this song. I want to have Al Franken come be Stuart Smalley as the Rednecks Anonymous counselor. He’ll be the guy going, “Because I’m smart enough, I’m good enough and, doggone it, people like me.” This is just one of those fun little story songs that allow people to laugh at themselves.

(John Scott Sherrill / D. Vincent Williams / Don Rollins)

You can’t sing that one hard – that’s a seductive song. That’s a song that you sing real softly in someone’s ear. Again, it’s something we’ve all experienced. You meet that somebody in your life, and you just start talking. “What do you like?” They go, “I like this.” You go, “Hey, me too.” “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” “Really?” “I feel the same.” You make that connection with that person. And that connection, that spark, leads you to love. I really believe that. I also like it that this song is completely different from what comes before it and what comes after it on the record. “The Likes of You” almost has a “crooner” quality. I’ve never done anything like that before.

(Brett James / Blair Daly)

I can’t tell you how many times people have said the same thing to me at our meet-and-greets after the shows. The first thing I hear is, “Man, you’re not near as depressing in person as your songs on the radio are. You really have a lot of fun in your show.” That’s why I felt so passionate about this song. This is where I was raised – riding four wheelers, camping out, shooting off guns, hanging out on the lake for the weekend, having a great time. That’s country living. I am a white buy who likes to have a lot of fun and do stuff like that. So “Crazy White Boy” fits.

(Willie Mack / Billy Decker / Bart Butler)

I’m not going to totally forsake the things that “brought me to the dance,” so there’s always going to be room for a romantic ballad on any of my records. I love this song. It’s about, “Here we are. Where do we go from here?” I just thought it was a beautiful lyric that could be about a couple who just met today, or it could be about a couple spending their 20th anniversary together. Both of them could be saying, “Where are we going from here?”

(Monty Criswell)

“Panama City” and “Her Kiss” both deal with that Redneck Riviera part of the country. They’re like bookends. One is the fun of summer, and the other is the end of summer. Everybody has experienced this. There are few people who didn’t go to the beach for the summer and didn’t fall in love with somebody. You realize, “Hey, I’m 17. She’s 17. She’s leaving to go back home to California. I’m probably never going to see her again.” Except in the song, it’s Denver. “Her Kiss” has a true, beautiful Monty Criswell melody. To me, it just sparkles.

(Brett James/ John Betts) 

I think this song is going to be a great one for those guys out there who have forgotten birthdays, anniversaries and left toilet seat up. This is a manly love song. We don’t mean to do those silly things that let the women we love down.  Some how we are forgiven and that is the beauty of love- even with all the crap we do!