Chris Carmack

“I've often been described more than once in my life as very much like a golden retriever: just sort of happy and excited to do whatever it is, even if it's as simple as retrieving a ball and bringing it back ad nauseum.”

“I think the 'Jaws' shark and the 'Shark Night' shark would fall in love and make sweet babies.”

“It wasn't until I became involved with 'Nashville' that I thought I had opportunities to record my music in a way that I would want to put it out into the world.”

“I lived in a little shack in Santa Monica, and I was working on 'The O.C.' and when it started airing, I took my laundry down to the laundromat like I always had, and so many people along the two blocks I walked and in the laundromat stopped me and asked me for photographs.”

“I grew up playing the saxophone. I joined the jazz band in high school, but somewhere along the way I realized the guys who strummed acoustic guitars at parties were the ones who got the attention. So I asked a friend to show me a few chords, and when I moved to L.A. I spent a lot of time practicing my guitar.”

“When I came to Nashville, I was sort of experimenting with a new identity, experimenting with the country world and country writers. I realized I needed to take a step back from that, to be true to some of the music I've been doing over the years and to put that into the world before I move forward and redefine myself again.”

“I grew up in a neighborhood that was surrounded by farms. There was a horse farm behind me and dairy farms on either side.”

“I'm somebody who values anonymity - not just in terms of not wanting people to recognize me or wanting my privacy, but I value anonymity in conversation.”

“As actors, we're so used to the axe falling, and then we all go our separate ways. I can tell you, the feeling amongst the cast in 'Nashville' is, we don't feel like we're done. It feels like, in some way, we're just hitting our stride.”

“In terms of exploring an identity in the country music world, what I realized very quickly was that there are people who have been performing country music since they were kids. It's very much a part of who they are; very much that jazz and blues are a part of who I am, because I grew up listening to and playing that kind of music.”

“Performing live is easy in front of an audience.”

“I'm honestly kind of scared of horror films. My girlfriend always tries to expose them to me. Being in a scary movie and seeing all the fake blood and stuff definitely takes away from the magic and kind of humanizes scary movies to me now, though.”

“Music kept me sane between acting jobs.”

“There are a lot of opportunities to do a lot of great, wonderful things, and if you say yes to them all, you will not sleep or breathe or eat.”

“I have gotten better at saying to myself, 'Relax and just take this moment in. Appreciate it for what it is.'”

“I have these songs that I've been playing for so many years. They're so intimate and close to me. And these are songs that probably a major label would not be interested in - some of them, anyway - interested in putting on a record.”

“I thought, when I came to Nashville, I was going to hook up with some of the top country writers in town and write some country tunes.”

“I really do love the theater, and as you get deeper into your career, it gets harder to carve out the time to do theater.”