In the opening lines of his hit "Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy)," Rodney Atkins references the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address, then proceeds to have a chuckle over not being able to remember anything past the opening words.

Even if Rodney's not much on history lessons, that doesn't mean he's lacking in common sense, and he believes that's exactly the kind of people who make up the core of the country audience. Unfortunately, he's not completely convinced that Nashville's music industry really understands that audience.

"The country music listener is intelligent," he told The Tennessean. "I think country music went through a white-trash period ... for a minute. I told my manager, 'Man, I just don't get that.'"

Rodney knows some pretty smart people, too. He counts doctors and professors among his circle of acquaintances. His brother-in-law really is a rocket scientist. And yet Rodney insists that the smartest person he's met is the mechanic who lives next door.

"That's my audience," Rodney suggests. "That is who I want to sing to, and that's who will relate to my music. That's the regular world out there that I want to reach."

Rodney's apparently on target. His current album, If You're Going Through Hell, launched four singles all the way to No. 1.