Dustin Lynch

Mom and sister played piano growing up; my grandma still plays piano in church. They always beat me over the head trying to get me to play piano, but I was more interested in riding dirt bikes and playing in the mud.

I would hole up in my bedroom growing up and teach myself guitar.

With my biology degree, I got this job at an environmental lab. We tested sewage runoff, we tested chemical warfare waste runoff. It's a job I'll never do again and I would never wish upon anybody.

I've gotten to go to the Opry a couple of times and stand backstage and watch. But I made it a point not to take a tour or stand in the circle until music took me there. I told myself that was one place I'd never go unless music took me there.

I picked Dad's guitar up when I was 8. It hurt to play, so I put it down and picked it back up when I was 15 and dug in. The guitar helped me come out of my shell and kind of gave me an identity at school.

I'm a laid-back guy, but my brain is always wrapped up in music.

It's really cool now that we have Twitter and Facebook, and it's cool that people can post their thoughts and stories and just constantly on their timelines.

If I could be involved in the hunting and fishing industry, that would be amazing. That said, I studied biology in college and that led into me being really involved in anatomy and being a pre-med major.

I love the smell of skunks. Driving down a back road and you smell a skunk that's sprayed or been hit. I love that. It reminds me of home.

I definitely love beaches. I love to surf. I love to fish, and I'm always in need of a suntan.

I love all types of music. I love top 40 dance pop, hip-hop, I don't even know what they call it now. I'm a huge fan of all that.

I'd love to cover an 'Incubus' song. I don't think anybody in a cowboy hat on a country stage has ever done that, and I'd love to be the first.