Lucy Hale sat down with Taste of Country to get UpClose and personal, opening up about her dream career: music. In the clip, the actress-turned-singer discusses her inspirations, why it's okay to be different and what she plans to tackle next.

Hale isn't like every other country singer -- from her wardrobe to her role on 'Pretty Little Liars,' she is unique. And she says it was a very important woman who taught her it was more than okay to be that way.

“My grandmother was kind of like the odd one out in my family," Hale explains. "[She] just taught me about things that nobody else would have told me about and — literally would tell me like, ‘It’s okay to be different, you stand apart. You’re like picked from the group for a reason like be yourself and be okay with that.'”

The singer's grandmother has since passed away, but those words have stuck with her to this day. Adds Hale, "she made me feel ok to be different.”

Although the 25-year-old is relatively new to the country music game, she's always been a fan of the music. She credits Shania Twain, Martina McBride and Faith Hill as the influences she found growing up, but there's one album in particular that made her see country in a whole new light -- Praying for Daylight' by Rascal Flatts.

“I think I was in 5th or 6th grade and I was in Dallas on my choir trip and I had just gotten this sweet Discman, and so I went out and bought Rascal Flatts’ CD," she says, "and I’d never listened to their music before. I just remember I just listened to that on repeat and I think that’s when I really started to be obsessed with country music was because of that album.”

Hale isn't just a singer -- she also enjoys the songwriting process, and occasionally she draws from her own life as inspiration. That was the case for her song 'Just Another Song.'

“We were talking about how when you hear a song it kind of takes you back ... you can remember exactly where you were when you hear a certain song," she explains, saying the girl in the song is her. "I've been through a breakup and I'm doing just fine, and I turn on the radio and I hear what was like ‘our song’ so it takes me back to this really sad place.”

“It’s drawing from real life and it reminds me of someone," Hale furthers.

Through the writing (and recording) process, the newcomer has already gotten to work with some talented individuals. She seems grateful for those opportunities and new relationships.

“I was completely, completely intimidated by some of the people i got to work with," she gushes. “I mean, these are kind of people that know what they’re doing. I was just blown away just talking about the songwriting process -- just going into it and seeing how these people work. They’re like machines.”

“They made me feel really comfortable and it was cool that I was a part of a group where all these people really wanted to see me succeed,” she says, calling herself "lucky."

So what's next for the girl who also plays Aria Montgomery on 'Pretty Little Liars?' More writing (and hopefully finding her one true love to be her muse). “I don’t think that I’ve really experienced that real love yet, so it’s hard for me to write about that -- so a lot of it’s been kind of sad lately," Hale says of her current songwriting situation. "That’s kind of where I’m at now."

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