If there’s a silver lining to being off the road for Mark Wills due to COVID-19, it’s the ability to spend time with his family. The 46-year-old has been touring for much of the last 25 years, so the unprecedented amount of time at home has been a welcome respite for him, even if it is bittersweet.

“I have really missed working,” Mark told Opry.com. “I will wholeheartedly tell you that there’s been nothing more special in my life than spending time with my family. I have enjoyed being with my wife and daughters, and projects at the house.

“But also, I have honest-to-God, truly missed the people I work with,” he continued. “For some people, the people you work with, the people you tour with, are just employees. Maybe for some people that’s the case. For a small unit like us, who all travel together on one bus and spend a lot of time together, it’s been tough. We love each other.”

Mark might not be on the road right now, but he is still making music. The Grand Ole Opry member has been working on a new record, which is simply music that he wanted to make — and that he trusts his fans want — without too much regard for anything else.

“Over the last few years,  I sort of decided nobody in the record industry knows my fans and knows my music better than me,” Mark reflected. “I decided with this new music to not worry about having too many people saying what the music they want is, or examples of what the new Mark Wills will look like. This time,  I just went and made music. I wanted to make the music that I was going to be playing on the road and make that music with the guys I was going to be playing with every night.

“I brought them in and we developed the direction we wanted it to go, the sound, and the feel,” he added. “Then we went into the studio and made it what we wanted it to be. I wasn’t just the singer in the studio. It was the most fun I’ve ever had in the studio. This time I really got to be totally immersed in the creative side of things. I can’t wait for people to hear it. The beautiful thing about good music is that it doesn’t expire, and it doesn’t have a shelf life.”