I was sitting on a airplane, flying away from my hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. I was headed back to Los Angeles, California, ready to get back into recording my first ever LP with my band, Valley Queen.

In the Arkansas of my growing up, not only was smart good, but the prevailing philosophy was always to do the right thing, to show other people dignity, and to honor the common man. I'm sad to say that those days are gone. In today's Arkansas, we can't recognize a lie when it's spoon-fed to us, and we don't want to help anyone who isn't as white-bread as we are.