California-to-Tennessee country star Gary Allan is an NFR regular. He says he loves playing Vegas this time of year because it's like a reunion with old friends and "it's always more crazy." Expect "high-energy hits, a "sprinkle of every album" and a handful of new songs. Allan got on the phone for a fast-moving chat with the Weekly in advance of his show from Conway Twitty's old house, which he now owns.

What are you working on at the moment? It was just the 20th anniversary of [1999 album] Smoke Rings in the Dark. ...[Producers Mark Wright and Tony Brown and I] are going to cut more sides in the '90s fashion just for fun. Nineties seems like it's a thing right now.

Does it feel weird that the '90s are considered "retro" now? That's really wild. The covers that everybody else talks about are the songs I loved when I was a kid—[and it was] not like the '50s or something. All it means is I'm old.

What's your creative process like? I'm most creative in the morning. I write by appointments, so I usually meet with some friends over coffee. You get in there and everybody kicks around your ideas. We pull the best one and write a song. It's about a three-hour process. It's like fishing: Either way you get a fish; it's just whether you get a big one or not.

You say that you have a zillion songs nobody will ever hear. Why not? I write a few songs a week, and some of them are worth hearing. Unfortunately, nobody gets to hear album cuts anymore. You only just hear whatever everybody thinks the hit was. The label still owns everything I record. But otherwise, I think it would be cool to hear all the demos and everything from every band.

Where do you find songwriting inspiration? It's usually things that happen to me or my friends or a story somebody tells you. Like, if somebody is going through anything emotional, good or bad, they'll give you the whole song. You've just got to be perceptive and understand when they're giving you the key lines.

Do you have any examples? I wrote with Hank Cochran years ago, and we couldn't find a title. ... Then somebody came in and asked him if they would tell him a story. He said, "No, I'm not in the crying mood today." We both kind of looked at each other and went, "Well, there it is."

You've written a lot about heartbreak. What's your advice for breakups? Go with your gut. Don't go backward. It'll always get better.

Where do you see country music heading? The hardest thing when you're here for a long time is to not get jaded. I always try to look at it and decide how I'm going to fit in. If it's not fit in a bowl, I lay out. Like this whole bro country thing, I just laid out for a couple of years. There was no way to fit into that for me. ... I'd rather have my integrity and sleep good at night than put stuff out that I don't like.

With such an accomplished career, what are you most proud of? Doing it my way. Just not never caving. Once you start doing songs that you don't like, there's no continuity to it.

What drives you at this point? I make records so that I can play live. I absolutely love to play live, and I will as long as people will come and see me. So I put all my energy into the show.

What is your favorite moment onstage? Three quarters in. When you first walk out you've got to sell them a little bit and get them on their feet. And when you actually have them on their feet and crying and laughing and clapping—to me, that's it. It's almost like you're cresting and you're like, "This is it. We're gonna take this bitch home."

GARY ALLAN with Wynn Williams, December 6-7, 8 p.m., $31-41. The Joint, 702-693-5222.