I was not always this strong guy, you see.

I went through a lot of hard times in my life to get here today.

All I wanted to be was an uncommon man.

In my whole life, I was not that.

Much worse than that.

I know what it takes to be a combat soldier,

and I used to look for courage.

I thought courage was a man who won the Medal of Honor.

It is.

But courage is a man who's willing to put those boots on every single day of his life

to go out there and fight for this country,

where nobody even knows what the hell they're doing or where the hell they're at.

There is something poetic about a 39-year-old man winning new artists of the year, where nobody even knows what the hell they're doing or where the hell they're at.

There is something poetic about a 39-year-old man winning new artists of the year.

I don't know where you're at in your life or what you're going through,

but I want to tell you to keep going, baby.

I want to tell you success is on the other side of it.

I want to tell you it's going to be okay. I want to tell you that the wind-sailed and finish in the rearview near a Burr, because what's in front of you is so much more important than what's behind you.

Let's party, Nashville! If you want to be great, oh man, prepare to get up off that mat. You're going to get

knocked down over and over and over.

And even when you feel like, no, I can't be hit this hard.

Or if you're down there thinking, it's no way I can get up from this.

...