Johnson tells Talking Metal: "My family and I moved to Nashville three years ago. The guys that played on it with me are from here. And Nick Raskulinecz, such an amazing rock producer, lives here too. We worked together two years ago on The Killer Instinct.

"He just did a phenomenal job on that. It gave us an opportunity to get to know each other on a personal level. After that experience, our families started hanging out. We take our kids to Chuck E Cheese or a hockey game. One day he said, 'Hey man if you've got any songs we should get you into the studio and start tracking some stuff.'"

As for the choice of songs on Echo, Johnson gives the credit to his wife. He adds: "These were songs that have been sitting in the vault. If I'm writing with some particular musicians, if we don't do something with it right then, I tend to sort of forget about it and move on. My wife Linda said I had a stack of material, quality songs that you should at least revisit."