"When You Need My Love": I've noticed women really relate to this song. I think it's because most of the time it's the woman going through it -- she's the one sitting at home waiting on that person to call. But not always -- this is right out of my live! It might be that guys just don't talk about it when it happens to them. When you're in that situation, when the person you care about the most is seeing someone else, you have a tendency to sit at home and sort of wait by the phone, hoping maybe they'll see the light. It's gonna last as long as you let it, and you're usually waiting for a couple of things: the strength to get back up and go out again or someone else coming along to wake you up. In that case, it's a matter of giving yourself time to figure out if that person is the right one.

"Sideways": When I wasn't working at a paper mill, I always worked construction, doing carpentry of some kind, and when we'd get off work, we'd stop and get a six pack. We'd have that radio blaring and there'd always be those Friday evening songs. This sounds like one of those to me. It's one of those barn burners. This is the honky-tonk me. I've spent a lot of time in honky-tonks -- I actually played in some of those clubs before I was old enough to be in there -- and I've met many dear friends there. They've paid my light bill for ten years and I really appreciate them. There's good people in there and I'm not ashamed of those days at all. "Sideways" makes me think of Buck Owens. I'm a huge fan of Buck Owens, always have been.

"The Way Things Are Goin'": This is about the lowest time in my life, and it lasted for approximately two years. I did a lot of things during that time that I probably didn't need to be doing, but I was playing four, five nights a week and still came to Nashville and worked some. The hook says, "The way things are going away from me in my life." My family couldn't hardly stand the way I as, and the person I loved was headed in a different direction, or at least I thought she was. Sometimes real life is just the best hook of all and that's what this song's about. I have to honestly lay my troubles on the table and hopefully somebody out there's gonna hear that and say, "Man, I can relate to that." If I don't open up, I don't have anything to write about. I think "The Way Things Are Goin'" might say something a lot of people are afraid to say.