If I'm blessed enough to have financial freedom in this world, my family is the ones I owe thanks to first.
— Frankie Ballard
Go on stage and stomp my foot on stage and play my guitar and sing my guts out because I love to entertain people. That's what makes me happy.
I've always been a strategy kind of guy. I like laying things out and having a plan. Maybe not always a plan, but an approach and a vibe.
My dad is a big Outlaw country guy - Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Waylon, Willie. He loves Elvis and turned me onto Elvis. He was always playing me stuff. He and I would sing and entertain the family. We'd have a little skit on Thanksgiving or whatever.
I've never felt the least bit entitled to airplay. Each spin I get means the world to me.
That's what music-making is: a dialogue.
I started off as a bar band. We played ZZ Top, Bob Seger, Waylon Jennings, the Rolling Stones - everything and anything people wanted to hear. You're not really selling yourself back then; you're selling beer.
Some people are songwriters, and some people are just recording artists. I'm both. I write and record.
I believe it's possible to have hit songs and popular music that's recorded by human beings.
Someone might look like an overnight success, but there's a lot of hard work that goes into it, and rightfully so. That's the way it should be. There are exceptions to that rule, but in country music, people really have to pay their dues.
I don't really have any hobbies.
I'd like to wrestle an alligator and fly a fighter jet.
I've never been a morning person, ever. I hate the morning. I have more energy at night.
I was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, about 20 miles from Kalamazoo. I lived around there for about seven years. That community is one that I really care about.
I want to be the guy with the fresh new sound. I can remember as a kid thinking about a DJ going, 'Ladies and gentlemen, here's the new one from Frankie Ballard. He's the guy with that hot new sound.' That's the dream.
There are a lot of country artists now that are heavily influenced by hip-hop. That's not me. I was very heavily influenced by rock & roll.
It sounds boring, but I'm such a guitar junkie and a gear junkie. I'm always fiddling with my stuff. It's relaxing to me... I'm always pulling my stuff apart, getting my pedal board out and fiddling with it or changing guitar strings.
I'm a Detroit Tigers fan through and through.
'Boys of Summer,' to me, is like the end of the summer, man. That heartbreaking feeling where you have to go back to school, your summer love is coming to an end, and the leaves are changing. That was always such an emotional time for me as a kid, because I loved summer so much.
I've always been a band guy. That's my wheelhouse. That's what I do.
I definitely respect the men and women who came before me and how much those people gave to me musically.
I've always expressed myself on guitar, and so I look at it as another voice that is available to say what you need to say.
The best times I've ever had and the greatest lessons I've ever learned were when my feet were out over the edge of the line, and I was at risk of getting a little beat up, physically and emotionally.
I'm a big 'Cosby Show' fan.
It really stresses me out to think about what other people think about me.
I like going to the movies by myself. I love going late at night when there's barely anyone in the theater. It's very relaxing.
My biggest turn-on is a fine pair of athletic legs. A girl with a fine pair of athletic legs who is not afraid to show them off. Turn-offs? A girl who doesn't like country music is a huge turn-off, and girls who don't take care of themselves.
It's amazing how the biggest things in our lives - when we're around the fireplace and talking about them when we're older - the things that matter the most to us start off amazingly small and in a humble way.
I'm always moving like a kid. I'm always bouncing around and never sit still.
All my influences go into a pot like a big ole stew, and it tastes like all the years I spent trying to play the guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughn. It tastes like Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. And if it comes out bluesy, then so be it.
I'm a huge Travis Tritt fan. I'm a big Southern rock guy.
I probably would have never made it through college without baseball, so I'm thankful for that. I really am proud that I got to play on that level.
I'm the world's biggest Bob Seger fan. He's like my Elvis.
Are you really into pop? Are you really into old country? Blues? If you're not honest about your influences, then things don't sound as real as they can be. They're not as sharp a cheddar cheese as they can be. And I'm trying to be the sharpest cheddar I can be.
'You'll Accomp'ny Me' is a song I've always really cherished. The guy in that song is just so courageous. He's saying this to the girl, 'I know you've got to go do your thing, but eventually, we'll be together. I feel that strong, and I know it in my soul.' And there's something really cool about that.
Life is relationships and what we're trying to do together. And please, that's what people have been singing about forever. That's what the blues is all about - the good, the bad, the fun, all of it - that lies there in between a man and a woman.
I see so many people living in a bubble. They want to be safe, they want their kids to be safe, and they want their friends to be safe. And I get that. That's awesome and really admirable. But life is not about who gets out the cleanest at the end, or who's the most well-preserved and healthiest.
Before you have a hit song, all you're doing is banging on the door and screaming, 'I've got something I want to play...' Now with the hit songs, they're like, 'Okay man, we're listening. Whaddya got for us?'
Money definitely doesn't stress me out. I really don't care about money... I probably should a little more.
I collect hotel keys. I hope to make something out of them someday. It would be cool to make a bar at my house and, like, the bar is all the hotel keys: lay them down and put glass over them. Or maybe even a coffee table.
I've got an incredible family that I never get to see. I've missed so much. They know how much my career means to me, and they allow me to go and be the workaholic that they never get to see. They support me in that.
