Jamey Johnson is enjoying success in the music industry again, after a list of personal and professional setbacks in recent years that included a lost record deal and a painful divorce. But while it might be easy for Jamey to point fingers at other people, the only person he blames is himself.

"I reached a point where I realized that if there was a shackle around my ankles, then the only one who put it there was me," Jamey tells the Grand Rapids Press. "And if that's the case, then the only one that can take it off is me."

After losing his first record deal, Jamey decided he'd rather do his music his way and released his album, 'That Lonesome Sound,' online, drawing interest from several record companies. But Jamey, burned by his previous experience, refused to be pressured to make a decision. "We got several offers," he says. "I even turned down two or three offers on the way to accepting the one at Mercury, just because I didn't want people coming in the studio and telling me what to do. I don't play that way anymore. Music is too personal to me, and it's too damn important to let somebody else come in and start tossing out orders."

The Grammy-nominated singer, up for four CMA Awards in November, is content with how things turned out. But, he does issue a warning to people who try to tell him what to do: "I treat people the way I expect to be treated, and if I treat somebody well and they mistreat me, we're going to have problems."