HUNTER HAYES

I'm very shy and awkward. I think the best thing is to embrace it. It's about accepting who you are and what you want to become and knowing all that you've got to work with, whether it's good or bad. My music was the only place I could be me for the longest time.

I'm in my dream world.

My mom makes the best Cajun stuff. I'm a big gumbo guy. I've lost a lot of my Louisiana accent, so now when I say 'gumbo,' I feel like someone who's never said the word before.

Anytime I can go fly for a few hours, I go. It's stressful and stress-relieving at the same time.

I was addicted to playing music.

I write for myself. I don't write because I have a record coming out. I write because I want to. I need to.

I don't even have a type, I don't think. My type is just whoever can get along with me.

To be the name on somebody's shirt that they've made themselves in preparation for one of your shows - it doesn't get much cooler than that.

I've got some crazy, stupid big goals. I really wanna headline arenas. I wanna have such a big crew that we've got to have 20 or 30 buses on the road because that's how big the show we're putting on is.

There's a lot of people I'd like to write with, like Keith Urban or even as far out as Stevie Wonder.

I hope people half my age and twice my age will listen to my music - I want it to live forever and for my audience to feel like they have a friend in my music. Music is a spirit. It heals. It's an amazing thing to be loved and appreciated, and sometimes, music has not just been my best friend, it's been my only friend.

I believe when you meet the right person it clicks, and you both know and you start making it work, you know?

I just love music gear, I'm a total geek all around.

The stage is my comfort zone, and playing live is what I've always wanted to do. It's why I want to do two hundred dates a year. I wouldn't feel that way if I were nervous onstage.

I truly believe that when you've found the one you're searching for, you become a better version of yourself. You're better for it.

I am a huge, huge Ronnie Milsap fan. I have been for a long time.

My favorite song depends on the day, what I'm going through, what I'm feeling.

Every time I take a photo, it goes into SnapSeed. Even if it's just a price tag on something, it still goes into SnapSeed, and I start editing it. I'm not a photographer, so I need all the help I can get when it comes to make a picture look cool.

My dad said 'When you love what you do, you never work a day in your life,' and I agree with that.

Country music busts the wall between performer and audience. There's a connection because there's a vulnerability, a confessional quality, to so much of the songwriting. Those lyrics take you in.

I don't have a girlfriend. I don't know if I have a type, but I really like girls who are driven. I really care about music, so I like it when a girl really cares about something too. Whatever it is they are into, I'll be their biggest fan.

I was born with this love for music, and I say 'born with' because I don't really remember a day waking up and deciding that I'm going do to music. It's been all I've ever done and all I've ever wanted to do.

If I could make noise with anything, I was going to.

I have a string of competitiveness in me. It's really strange 'cause it's not something that I would even expect myself to have, but every now and then it kinda sneaks out, you know.

My first instrument was an accordion. Growing up in Louisiana, my grandmother gave me an accordion because of our Cajun heritage.