You wrote or co-wrote 25 of the 26 songs on this album, some of them deeply, deeply personal,
and just talk to me about being willing to kind of put your heart and soul out there,
put your emotions on the line, and just truly give yourself that much to your fans.
My favorite part of my job is that I am, and I get to be that what you see is what you get guy.
I don't have to keep up with a story. I don't have to tell lies. I don't,
I feel like my story is interesting enough as it is, and the reason I take so long in
between records, my records are chapters in my life, every one to this point. I can't speak
for the next one because I don't know what the next chapter of my life holds, and I've always
wanted to kind of go back and retrace some steps and address some memories from the way I see
things now, looking back on decisions I made. Not that I would change them, but just from a
reflecting perspective, I guess you could say, but it is all about being in a room with somebody
and telling stories, and I guess embracing emotions and expressing those things through
words and melodies. I feel like songwriting is the truest form of expression outside of prayer,
and to be able to sit in a room with one, two, three people and have them learn things about
you, because I'm extremely selfish as a songwriter, and with my records. If it's not about me,
or somebody very close to me, I don't write songs about things I haven't been through,
because I just feel like they come across as insincere, and I feel like listeners pick up
on that, but to share parts of my life with other people and put those stories to a melody,
what I found is that the songs that are more personal to me resonate better with people. If
I try to write a broad, general, marketable, it's never worked out well for me. I mean,
there are writers who can say, I'm going to write a number one song today, and it happened. I'm not
that guy. I take time in between records because I want to be able to, I want to make sure I say
what I need to, or my co-writers and I say what we need to. Well, I think when your fans hear this
album, they're going to feel like it was worth the wait, and this is the last demo that's on the
deluxe version of The Devil Don't Sleep. It's called You Promised, a very personal song from
Brantley Gilbert on Big Machine Radio.