You wrote “5 More Minutes,” and the song
is beautiful and you’ve probably heard
plenty about that. It’s one of the most
personal songs we’ve heard from you, and
there’s talk of you releasing a new album.
Are you going to be working on writing
even more of the material than you did on
your last album?
Oh yeah, definitely. Like you said, I’m trying
to make it a little more personal and let folks
get to know me not only as an artist but as a
person. I think writing does that for you. It’s
feeling good. I’m not a guy that’s going to pick
my own song just because I wrote it, but luckily
I think I’m getting there with the writing, so it’s
doing alright.
With working on the album and touring,
you’ve got a lot going on, and a book you
just released on top of it, “Go Big or Go
Home.” You see a lot of musicians try to
branch out from music but they always
seem to want to get into film. Heading
into literature is a cool departure from
that. What made you want to work on a
book?
I feel like I tell stories for a living, but just
singing songs, so it gives me a medium to get
those stories out there but also a chance to
expand. The publishers came to me a few years
ago with the idea for a book, but I turned them
down because I felt like it was way too early
and I didn’t have enough stories to tell. But it
did strike up an interest in me. They came to
me again last year with it and I felt, “If we don’t
call it a biography and kind of tell stories and
what they meant to me and what I’ve learned,
then I’m good with it.” It felt interesting to me
20
and hopefully folks enjoy it.
You’ve been through a lot of stuff over the
last few years since Idol and all the work
you’d done before that even, singing
locally, to the point where I wonder…
of course your life has changed in a lot
of ways, but everybody knows you now.
When you go home on the weekends and
off-time and what else, do you try to shut
it all down?
Oh yeah, at home it’s like nothing ever
happened for me! I go home and hang out
with my friends and family and I get treated
like normal. Things have changed a lot but
September 2016
INSIGHT