Uncle Kracker

In a Little While' is about the one that got away. Everybody's got one that got away. I know I have one that got away.

Yeah, I work best on the fly.

You work for a record deal, and you work for writing a record, and you mix and master the record and put it out, and it doesn't sell, and you're kinda like, 'What? That's not the way it's supposed to work.'

The last thing you want to see is your record sit on a shelf.

All in all, you just hope to sell a couple records and keep on trucking.

My mom listened to all that AM-'70s stuff, and my old man listened to a lot of country and Motown and doo-wop.

They weren't musicians or anything, but my dad was a big music fan and so was my mom.

I'm definitely not reinventing any wheels. I'm just sticking to my own pattern - my own stuff that I want to listen to, stuff that I want to hear.

I just want to make timeless stuff.

Better Days' suits me best because I'm not that aggressive and I'm not that confident and I'm just that much more laid-back.

I've got two daughters and a wife. I more or less have to keep it together. They keep me in line pretty much. I think if I didn't have that, I'd be an idiot.

I could care less what people think or say and do.

I don't get excited about anything.

I remember when my first record came out. McGrath and Sugar Ray were on the same label, and McGrath did a cameo on the 'Follow Me' video, which helped me get the video on VH1.

I've been writing everything from pop to country to blues - just a mixed bag of everything.

I've been on plenty of tours where there's no interaction between bands at all. But when you're out with Chesney, all day every day, there's something fun happening.

The last thing you want is to be out on the road with some miserable group, just putzing around.

I got lucky with that first Kid Rock record thing and then just to be able to do the solo thing - and to do it again, it's like hitting the lottery twice.

Kid Rock and I talk every other day.

I met Kid Rock when I was probably 12 or 13-years-old and we quickly became best friends.

If you're not expecting too much, you won't be let down.

My dad listened to George Jones and Hank Williams, and of course all the Motown stuff was unavoidable.

It just feels weird having your own thing.

I get this whole, 'He's nothing without Kid Rock and he's Kid Rock's sidekick and blah blah blah.' And I know that there's no way I'll ever, ever, ever, ever be able to escape that because he casts such a huge shadow. But at the same time, the more I do do by myself, the more I'll be able to stand alone.

It's weird, the way Kid Rock's going with 'Picture' and the way my stuff is going, too. But I couldn't be happier with the adult contemporary.

I'm a songwriter, and if it wasn't for country radio, I really wouldn't have many other outlets.

I never wanted to be pigeon-holed for one specific thing, so that's why I've always kind of been everywhere.

I don't know why, but you didn't hear a lot of sad, depressing, ballad-y stuff coming out of the '70s. It was a lot of happy songs.

Smile's' definitely got that AM '70s vibe. It's just a fun, upbeat, positive song.

If it were up to me, I think everything oughta be happier.

Barry Manilow, BJ Thomas and stuff like that were always running through my house.

It's fun to make records that you want to sit back and listen to yourself.

I went through a long patch where I didn't want to write anything at all. I don't know if that's normal.

I grew up pumpin' gas.

Not that I needed to make a dance record, but it dawned on me that I tend to write a lot of acoustic ballads and mid-tempo type tunes. I realized it was time for something a little more upbeat and positive and that's what I ended up with on 'Happy Hour.'

At the end of the day, people want to have fun more than they want to cry.

Each time we go on stage, I want people to leave smiling.

Nothing really surprises me - ever.

Boating and fishing are my joint.

When I'm up onstage, I don't feel removed from the people coming to hear the music. You can feel it, when they identify with you. Sometimes when I'm up there, I want to tell 'em 'I'm not any different than you are.'

The way I feel is if I'm enjoying it, it's really worth doing.

I really subscribe to this mindset of just having fun. That's what it's always about. It's the train that I'm forever on.

Kid Rock knows what he wants, and I'll finish a verse or two for a song. He'll start something and work on something else right away. He can put together a song and already know that it's done, even when it's not.

There's no handbook to parenting, there's just opinions and statistics.