Rodney Atkins

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!

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.

I grew up playing music and enjoying good food, friends and family in my own backyard.

Some people grab my hair and pull it out. People write on my jeans when I'm on stage. They write on my boots — their phone number, name or whatever.

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

But I have vertigo... I lose my equilibrium easily. I can lean out to look at something and just keep leaning and not realize I'm about to fall.