Country singer/songwriter Pat Green [ tickets ] is set to release "What I'm For" on Jan. 27. The album's lead single, "Let Me," is currently at No. 12 on Billboard's Top Country Singles chart. "What I'm For" is the follow-up to 2006's "Cannonball," which peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart.

Green was born in San Antonio and raised in Waco, TX. He started writing songs and performing while attending Texas Tech, and in the mid-'90s started independently recording and releasing albums. Local buzz grew to the point where luminaries like Willie Nelson, Robert Earl Keen, and Jerry Jeff Walker let the young Green open for them, further expanding his audience. He sold a quarter-million albums without major label support (though at one point he was sponsored by Miller Lite), released 2001's "Three Days" on the Republic label, then went gold with the 2003 Universal/Mercury smash "Wave On Wave."

The 36-year-old Green doesn't take any amount of his hard-earned success for granted, "To see my songs get played on the radio, and hopefully have people put them in the soundtracks of their lives, and mark their own important moments in their histories with some of my songs ... I look back and think about the '80s and '90s, and there are songs all through there that I can tell you exactly where I was when I heard them the first time."

Green spoke with LiveDaily while preparing for the release of "What I'm For" and his subsequent tour in support of the set.

LiveDaily: How does the songwriting process work for you? Do you set aside specific time to write, or are you someone who writes continually?

Pat Green: I don't write unless somebody says, "Hey Pat, you're going to be doing a record in six months." That's when I get started. About six months out, I start piling up songs. Like, right now, I haven't written a song in a couple of months. I'm not there in the creative process. It gets dull to me to continually dive over and over into my very personal private space of my mind, and try to pry out emotion. It's much easier for me to do it when I know I've got the next six months to write, and I've got to be clear and concentrate on what I'm trying to say.

For "What I'm For," how much material did you have before you went in to record?

This time around, I had about 30 to 40 songs before I went into the studio. It was the most productive time I've ever had in the studio, because all we had to do was say which songs we thought were better, as opposed to going into the studio with three or four songs, and write during the process of putting the record on tape.

Do you see an evolution in your songs over time, now that you're a little older? Now that life is revolving more around family?

No doubt about it. I'm much more comfortable in my skin as a father than I am as a person in the public. I certainly love impact, but I see that many times as a young man I was guilty of--you know, before you have children, or before you're of a certain age--I wanted it all. I wanted to be singing in the arenas and doing all that stuff. But the kids come along, the alcohol fades away, the drugs fade away, and eventually you're left with just what you started with when you were 18 years old. You realize, that time between there and here ... I've learned a lot. I'm much more comfortable in my own skin now without all the crap that I was putting into my body, without all the twisted, self-serving notions that I was filling my head with. Impact is much more what I'm looking for, than fame and fortune.

The song "Country Star" shows some good humor and cynicism about the music industry. This one was inspired by Nickleback's "Rock Star"?

Yeah, "Rock Star" looks at all the trappings of being in the rock world. I think what I was trying to get at was not only the trappings, but how ridiculous the notion of this all is. The character in the song, you know, he's not getting enough chicks at his coffee house gigs, he doesn't have his own airplane, he's not getting free drinks at the bar, so he's going to pack up all his stuff and move to Nashville and somebody is going to make him a star. I think that's just a hilarious notion, to think that you can do that. It's like, "I'm going to go to Hollywood and be a movie star." That's what I was kind of poking fun at, but not only that, but ourselves, myself as well. [laughs] The things I've done in my life, like buy an expensive bottle of wine to impress somebody I don't even like, you know, just dumb stuff. That's how crazy it gets when you're in this life.

And to that end, you didn't go to Nashville right away, early in your career. You built things up on a local level and released albums independently. What kept you going?

I think the thing that kept inspiring me through all of it was that it was very lucrative. For a 22-, 23-, 25-year-old guy, to be making that kind of money, there was really no reason for me to go seek a big record deal. Why would I do that? "I'm killin' it!" I didn't know anybody my age at the time that was doing what I was doing. I could go anywhere, could be on the beach in Maui tomorrow, when I was 25 years old, you know? Why would I want to change that?

Obviously, that changed. What happened?

What came to me, I was in Atlanta playing, and I had driven a whole van full of people all the way to Atlanta to do this show for 300 people. No chance that even if we'd sold it out that we would have made any money. We were just trying to build the crowd doing the same thing we were doing in Texas, years before. And I go across the street to the Virgin Megastore, and there's not one of my records in that store. I had six records out at the time, all independent.
But there were no records in the store. It was so infuriating. I knew I drove over there for no money, just for the hope that people would buy records. I found out that the only way that people can buy records is if they come to the show. That was when I thought, "I've got to get ahead of this. I've got to get professional people to make sure that this doesn't happen." Or else I was going to miss my window, basically.

I think it was a business decision more than anything. I realized it was time to hang up the independent flag. By that time, I had sold so many records on my own, there was no way that anyone was going to tell me what songs I had to sing. I had written songs that had been nominated for all these awards, so, you know, I didn't need any help in the studio. I didn't need any media training. I'd already done all of that.

How do you like writing songs versus performing live and getting that instant gratification?

I like both; one doesn't outweigh the other. The feeling of completing a good song that you know people will be singing is awesome. That's an incredible, very palpable feeling. So is the feeling of walking on stage and seeing the people light up and get excited about you being there. In my mind, I like both.