You said when you first heard about ''Tim McGraw,'' 17-year-old Taylor Swift's song, you were a little worried about it being a nostalgic lyric.
Yeah, I don't want to be that nostalgic yet. But it's cool.
Did Faith have any thoughts like, Who is this young blonde hottie who's trying to stalk my husband by naming songs after him?
She didn't tell me, if she did. I think she liked the song, actually. I liked it.
Now, you have a song on your new album called ''Kristofferson.'' Maybe he should do a song called ''Taylor Swift'' and bring the whole thing full circle.
Maybe so. Kris Kristofferson can do anything he wants to! He's a pretty impressive guy. My wife thinks he's hot.
Have you and Kristoferson ever talked politics? Since you're a Democrat, you might have a little bit more in common with him politically than some other country stars.
Didn't have time. I would love to talk politics with him. I'm sure he's got a lot to say.
He told me that there was a period where he got so political on stage, people were walking out of his concerts, but he learned how to temper it.
I try not to do that. I don't think that's my job, to get too political. I'm just a country singer.
But there was a little moment there when you and Faith were critical in a press conference of the way the Hurricane Katrina situation had been handled back in your home state of Louisiana, and it was seen as coming down on the Bush administration. I went on country message boards after that, and it's not like anybody was going to ''Dixie Chick'' you, but there were some sentiments along the lines of: Okay, we're gonna watch these two, make sure they don't get out of line. Do you ever feel like, because so much of the fan base is so conservative, people are watching you?
Do you think you have to be careful about what you say, is that what you're trying to get to? No, because it's not something that I would really talk a whole lot about unless it was something that really concerned me, in a passionate way, or affected me in a real direct way. I certainly have opinions about everything, but I don't think that I necessarily should use every opportunity I have to say something like that.
But you did feel passionate about Katrina.
Well, I just felt like there might be an off chance that I could help by saying something. Who knows. But I don't think I was saying anything that anybody disagreed with. [Laughs] I mean, there was enough blame to go around for everybody there.
You're about to turn 40. Do you still feel like 50 is a good age to think about running for governor or going into politics, as you've suggested before?
You reevaluate your life on a daily basis, really. If the time comes where my kids are grown and I feel like I can actually do something and make a difference and learn a lot more than I know now and can be smart enough to do something like that, then certainly I want to help. And if helping means that I don't do anything like that, that the best way I can help is not to do that, then that's certainly what I'll do.
Are you ever on stage where you stop and think about what it is that those 18,000 people — many of them are adoring women — see in you?
It's a running joke with me and my band all the time. Like, I'll do something just to see if I can make somebody yell or something, and I'll look over at Darren [Smith, the guitarist], who'll be [shrugging] and going, ''I don't get it.'' I don't get it! Look, we're smart enough to know it's a conducive environment. You set it up to be that way. You know, even the ugliest guy in the band can get lucky, because he's in the band! [Laughs] Or could — back in the day. It's just something about being on stage and being famous, I guess. But you take it with a grain of salt, because you know that the exact same people who act like that at concerts, you could run across the street and say hi and they probably wouldn't act that way.
Forbes had that list of music's biggest moneymakers for 2006, and the Stones were No. 1 and you and Faith together were No. 2. But then they broke it down between touring and album sales, and the vast majority of your income was from concerts, and then the Stones' was virtually entirely from a tour.
Touring is our main stream of revenue. There's no doubt about that. Record sales, for most artists, anyway, it's not something they can rely on to make their living. It's great to sell a lot of records and make money on it, but touring's where you generate most of your income. Yet, you can't go out and do well touring unless you make great records.
So does that get you to thinking — not that you don't have a nice nest egg already — ''Man, I'm gonna have to be on the road every year for retirement and the kids''?
No. No way. I'm not gonna be doing that. Uh-uh! I'm gonna be fat and fishin' like Elvis somewhere one day.
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