Chris Janson recently released his much-anticipated new album, Buy Me a Boat, and he was thrilled to share some of the new songs at the Grand Ole Opry.

The title song from the project became an improbable No. 1 hit after Janson and his wife released it independently. "My pal Bobby Bones in radio played it twice one morning at random, and it blew up, went to No. 1 on iTunes chart ... literally, the rest is history," the singer says in the video above, which was filmed backstage at a recent Opry appearance and is debuting exclusively at Taste of Country.

Janson received calls from "a plethora" of record companies by the end of the day, and he signed with Warner Bros. Nashville, which released the album in October. Another key track is "Messin' With Jesus," a duet with Tim McGraw.

"I wrote it with my wife, we wrote it probably six months ago or so," he says. "It goes back and forth in the dichotomy of living good, living bad and being right in the middle. The premise of it is that no matter what, I ain't messin' with Jesus. It's catching its own buzz just off the title, and the fact that McGraw's doing a duet is just icing on the cake."

"Power of Positive Drinkin'" is the current single from the album, and it's a topic Janson admits he can relate to from his own past. "These days I'm more of a Mountain Dew junkie," he admits. "I think any blue-collar nine-to-fiver ever — anybody, really, it doesn't matter what walk of life — you start out at beer one with a bad day, and by number 10 life's good again."

"Holdin' Her" is a song that's especially close to the songwriter. "I've written I can't tell you how many songs, but for whatever reason, I wanted to write it so intricately, precise to real life that it was mine only. It's a game-changer for me. I've recorded it in the past, and it never turned out the way that I wanted it to, and I nailed it this time with [producer] Byron Gallimore. He nailed it. He's a great producer."

Janson wrote every song on Buy Me a Boat.

"You're getting a storybook of who I am and what I'm about, and things I've been through, things I'm wanting to go through," he shares. "I think there's something on this album for everyone."

The singer-songwriter grew up on classic country music, and playing the Opry was one of his most cherished dreams.

"This is the epitome of country music to me," he says. "I always said if I only ever played the Grand Ole Opry, I made it, so everything else is just icing on the cake ... literally, unpretentiously, I'm livin' the dream."

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