Rodney Atkins

“My wife grew up loving country music, so I always run songs by her whether I wrote it or if somebody pitched it to me.”

“I guess I do prefer a ball cap. I have performed without a cap, mostly at funerals and weddings.”

“I am so excited this year getting to play the 85th Anniversary Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Everyone knows on Thanksgiving morning to get up, turn on the TV and watch the parade, so to be an actual participant is going to be fun and I'm looking forward to it. I am gonna have to put on my deer hunting gear, though, to stay warm!”

“I am spiritual. I believe God loves and is pulling for all of us.”

“I was a sickly baby, and after two sets of adoptive parents took me home, they returned me to the orphanage because of a serious respiratory infection. But as they say, the third time's a charm, because my mom and dad adopted me and took me into their home where I was raised in a family full of love.”

“You wind up creating from silence, like painting a picture on a blank canvas that could bring tears to somebody's eyes. As songwriters, our blank canvas is silence. Then we write a song from an idea that can change somebody's life. Songwriting is the closest thing to magic that we could ever experience. That's why I love songwriting.”

“When I did 'The Tonight Show' and Jay Leno was still there, he was very nice but it was surreal. It's like you can't believe you're standing there talking to that person. If you've seen them in a lot of movies or on TV you feel like you know them, just like my fans feel like they know me.”

“It's really hard to find a love song that is real. That's when you really strike a chord with somebody, when you dig in deep and grab a hold.”

“The way I heard about The American Giving Awards was from the people that I work with. My publicist and I had a conversation a while back about wanting to really get involved more and more. We've been working with the National Council for Adoption with the children's home that I was adopted from called Holston Home.”

“I don't take a second for granted of the honor of representing country music.”

“If I spent the rest of my life getting even with the people that had helped me out, I would never settle the score.”

“I could be on 52nd and Third in Manhattan up and ask a strange for directions and they will help you, that's a rural heart. Your car breaks down in the middle of Iowa or somewhere, or Tennessee where I'm from, people want to help each other. Given each opportunity, you see how people come together.”

“The way I started playing music was sitting around with friends and singing songs. I love good ol' fashioned guitar pulls.”

“Where I'm fortunate and why I think I've thrived and survived, through the not having albums out every year-and-a-half, is not taking the songs lightly and trying to make sure I've got consistency.”

“I started out singing covers. I've sung a lot of 'em and love a lot of 'em.”

“There's a book called 'The Shack' - it had a lot to do with me coming full circle, meeting my birth mother. Awhile back, my birth mom and my adopted mom came to my show together, and it was pretty surreal.”

“I started doing some demos and got online and bought a refurbished laptop, bought a microphone off of eBay. A lot of folks said you can't really do it that way at a pro level, but I did some vocals that way, turned it into the label and they said, 'Wow, where did you record this? The vocals sound great!'”

“You choose to be happy, and in life we have as many good days as bad days. I try to find and record those songs that pull you through the bad days, and keep you believing that the good days are just around the corner.”

“There's an intelligent redneck in all of us somewhere.”

“I think my songs are singing to the rural heart. It's not whether you're from a big city or the middle of nowhere in a small town.”