New Jersey shaped who and what I am. Growing up in Jersey gave you all the advantages of New York, but you were in its shadow. Anyone who's come from here will tell you that same story.

My favorite place in the whole world is Nashville. Because it's my home, it's Music City. It's like, everybody there is so artistic and so creative, and nice! Everybody's really friendly.

I never had, like, a nanny that took care of me. My mom always fed me breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I was brought up in a very ordinary family, in fact, a worker's family. Both my father and mother were ordinary citizens.

That background helped me a lot, because it taught me to fend for myself from a very early age, and to be responsible. It was an upheaval of an upbringing, which seems to have worked, I guess.

My father wouldn't get us a TV, he wouldn't allow a TV in the house.