“I ain't really happy," sings Gary Allan on “Get Off on the Pain,” the down-home masterstroke that begins and provides the name for his new MCA Nashville collection, "until the sky starts driving rain." Unhesitatingly frank, mercilessly guitar-crazed, it's the rocked-out country confession of a smart guy drawn to what the rest of the world calls wrong roads and long shots, or complains of as aching bones and stubbornness, or -- as Allan sings in a spectacular stretch of drawn-out soulful vowels -- underestimates as dark horses. And as the California-born superstar releases his eighth studio album, it's about the most Gary Allan piece anyone could imagine.

"That's, like, very autobiographical," Allan understates, talking about the song. "I feel like I'm living that right now. It's got a lot of life in there for me: It represents the relentless quality of life on the road. You'll never hear me singing about tractors or farms, just because I don't know anything about that stuff. Wrong roads and dark horses I know about. Still, I think the pain can get to be some kind of a positive for me because it connects to everything I've ever dreamed of. While it's relentless, it's confirmation of the actual existence of this big musical drama, the result of the dream."