Gary Allan's Music, Life Evolving

0/25/2007 Stephen L. Betts   Gary Allan says that even though he has crooned country music his whole life, he finds himself evolving with music that’s headed in a more rocking direction. “Even when I'm writing, this is the direction I'm heading in,” Gary tells the Dallas Morning News. “I've been listening to a lot of Tom Petty and U2 and Social Distortion. Each year, no matter what I listen to, it bleeds into my music. I definitely feel like the spirit of what I do is country music. I can think back to when I was 14 and saw the Highwaymen tour. That was a turning point for me. That was when country music turned into rock 'n' roll for me. It turned cool. I wanted to be that guy.” Gary also talks about why he’s still living in the same Nashville home where wife Angela Herzberg committed suicide in October 2004, and reveals that he's even built a home studio to record his CDs. “I was going to sell it right after that happened,” he says. “But I forced myself back in the bedroom and I really pushed through. It has gotten easier. It's gotten easier through music. There is no better therapy. That has really pulled me through. I'm in a really good place now.” Gary Allan’s latest album, Living Hard, was released Oct. 23, and features the current single, “Watching Airplanes.”