Christmas albums are not something you do frequently.

So many people release albums before Christmas and they get lost in the Christmas rush.

First of all I've been having a wonderful run of luck with cover albums songs I didn't write. I had five pop cover albums and two Christmas albums and they were all very successful.

For a Jewish guy I've recorded a lot of Christmas albums.

I don't know of too many double Christmas albums so it is something that's new and hopefully will be fun and there's plenty of stuff out there to cut.

Favored Nations is a long-term commitment. Our hope is that those who are passionate about real musicianship will want to hear and own most of our albums. We will set out to attain the same direct relationship with our customers that we have with our artists.

I think maybe because of the kind of music I sing people want to believe you're a diva. They can't believe after eight years and eight albums you're still relatively sane. I feel like they almost want me to throw something at somebody.

What I was going for in the first two albums I didn't necessarily achieve. Because I was young and because it was my first time out. And the second album was such a 'quickie' sort of 'Let's just get it over with!' But the kind of music I make there's a lot of subtlety in it. And I think it takes a couple of listens to actually really get it.

Country fans need to support country music by buying albums and concert tickets for traditional artists or the music will just fade away. And that would be really sad.

I was a huge fan of comedy and movies and TV growing up and I was able to memorize and mimic a lot of things not realizing that that meant I probably wanted to be an actor. I just really really amused myself and my friends with memorizing entire George Carlin or Steve Martin albums.

I want to be around for a long time singing and making albums and movies.

Movies for adults sucked in the 1980s and music for adults sucked even worse whether we're talking about Kathleen Turner flicks or Sting albums the decade's non-teen culture has no staying power at all.

Hip-hop don't have no fresh energy none at all. It's money driven everybody tryin' to make that cheque nobody putting art in their albums any more.

We got a little waylaid along the way. The whole problem started about 10 years ago with management and legal battles then still trying to make albums while I was doing all of that.

I've done a lot of albums and I kinda know when I'm onto something that was inspirational for me to record and create and this was one of those projects where I really enjoyed making the album.

Hip-hop's always reached out to kids. If you look at the last 10 big albums it might seem ironic. But when I look at the history of this music it's always had a lot of positivity.

My goals have changed throughout my life. At one time it was winning awards selling out concert dates selling more albums than anyone else. Now my goals are to see my grandchildren grown live a long and healthy life with my family and friends and travel the world.