The owner of 14 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs, and Country Airplay, charts (five of which have hit number one) Joe Nichols is a superstar in every sense of the word. His latest single, “Undone,” is currently on the rise, and while Nichols was taking a quick break from finishing up his upcoming ninth studio album, Myspace caught up with him to find out more about his new music, his man cave and the one thing he’s happy to see less of at shows.

You are married with three daughters, so I gotta know, what are the specs of your man cave?

[Laughs] Well, it’s a fairly big room. It’s a fairly undone room, no pun intended. I think my TV in there is an 80-inch flat screen, got a sound bar that makes the sound pretty big, and a huge couch. Other than that it’s just a bunch of boxes.

It’s still your space, though. It’s not like there’s a spare stuffed animal, or you accidentally sit on a Barbie doll.

With three kids, especially two little ones, that’s gonna happen everywhere in the house, no matter what.

Do you have any horrible Barbie doll related injuries you can share?

Nothing uncommon. Just the same old, wake up at 3am to use the restroom, or check on something, and step on one of those little, extremely tough, plastic figurines.

Is a Lego still the worst thing to step on?

There are so many. The princesses now, the little figurine princesses that have that sharp hards, and the crowns, those are pretty bad, too.

Moving to your music, your ninth studio album is due out later this year. With the exception of your first two albums, this has been the most time you've taken in-between albums. What’s been going on in your life during the past three years, and how do you feel it’s reflected in the new music?

I think, most of all I think the music is most important, and sometimes you have the songs, and sometimes you don’t.

Nothing was really going on in my life other than just trying to work on the road as much as possible to keep visible there, and at the same time trying to find the right songs, not just some songs, but the right songs. That’s a pretty big chore, especially given that my sound has kind of evolved a little bit over the last few years, from “Brokenheartsville” to “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” to “Sunny and 75.” People are pitching a lot of different things, so it’s hard for me to identify when I’m writing, or when I’m picking songs, exactly which direction we’re gonna go in, and for the label it’s the same thing, and likewise for the producer, Mickey Jack Cones.

It’s just one of those things where it’s not an on purpose thing, there’s nothing delaying us other than (we) just gotta get it right. I think we’re really close, and I don’t know what the payoff is going to be for taking our time on this, but I know in the end, when we sit back in 20 or 30 years and listen to that album again, we’ll know that it was worth the time.

Is your process such that you can write while on a tour bus, or do you have specific spots at home where you do your songwriting?

It’s really tough on the road, because so many things vary from day to day. It’s always a good environment, but not necessarily for writing.

When I go home I have a couple of rooms designated in the house to write in, to get quiet, where I can sit and think about ideas. That’s always helpful, but I think the most helpful places usually tend to be Nashville writing groups, because that’s where a lot of magic happens.

Can you take me to being a fly on the wall during those writing sessions? How many people are in the room, what’s going on, what kind of beverages are being consumed?

There’s probably two, maybe three people per writing room, about nine or ten writing rooms occupied at the same time from 10 until about 4. Beverages depend on the room. Some guys like to write in the dark, some guys don’t.

I will say this for every writing room I’ve ever been in — everybody’s been really super cool. Whatever the vibe I have wanted to do, they were always willing to make that happen.

It’s part of Nashville, you can make great music, or what you think is great music, and spend your day, what should be at the office, having fun with your friends, coming up with some ideas, and being creative. I think that’s why we all became musicians, or wanted to get into music, to do something that was filled with effort, but seemed effortless, and was very fulfilling, while having fun.

Getting to work with your friends, and making your own hours, is definitely the best thing possible. Although, as someone who makes his own hours, I know we can be harder on ourselves than a regular boss. Do you have any examples of this from your own life?

Yeah. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize that. My wife has to point it out to me that, "hey, you’re really taking it a lot harder than you should take it," or, "you should take it easy on yourself," or, :this situation is not as big as you’re making it out to be."

So you’re the workaholic and at times your wife is the voice of reason.

That is absolutely 100% correct. Now it’s a little harder because we have little babies, and she has a really good point, they haven’t seen me in a long time. They haven’t seen me very much, and they’re at that age where they know that I’m gone, and they actually miss me, and I miss them, and she reminds me of that all the time.

I noticed a comment on one of your videos was by someone with a Confederate flag as an avatar. Have you ever had to deal with someone bringing that flag to one of your shows, and if so, how did you handle the situation?

I’ve had people who’ve brought confederate flags to shows. You’d be surprised where they come to shows at. We’ve had shows in Northern Michigan, Washington, and New York, where people have brought confederate flags.

It’s like anything else that you don’t care for, or you don’t necessarily want to see, or agree with, you just kinda look the other way, or give that person their space to do their thing, and let them deal with it.

It doesn’t happen near as much as it used to, but it still happens. It’s very very little compared to where it used to be, for sure.

On a much lighter note, you appeared on Lucy Hale's album, Road Between. Are you now a closet Pretty Little Liars fan?

I’m a Lucy Hale fan. I have a couple of girls in my family, including my oldest daughter, and my younger sister, they’re all Pretty Little Liars fans, so when I told them I was doing a duet with Lucy Hale they were like, I love her!

So you’re totally going to put your, what I’m assuming is now a Pretty Little Liars addiction, on your family.

[Laughs] Yeah, I guess so.

You can’t watch that show and not get addicted to it. Believe me, I know!

It hasn’t happened to me yet, but I’ve heard a lot of people say that. I will say this about Lucy, she’s one of those people who’s just incredibly charming. She’s a very personable person, a very sweet person, a talented person, a great singer. To get to work with her was neat in the sense that there were family members who were over the top excited about it, and I was, too, but at the same time I met somebody who is a pretty big star in a world sometimes where you don’t find many charming people, and she was so genuine, and so nice.

I hope she sends you an autographed boxed set of the entire show.

If she does I’m sending it to you!