Toby Keith is living his dream and it's all thanks to DreamWorks records.

"They've really rolled out the red carpet. They're treating me like a singer/songwriter is supposed to be treated," Keith says of his new label.

"What I turn in is what they've got to work with. They don't send it back and say we can change things.

"If I was just an artist that did songs that other people wrote ... they can say it should sound different, but when you write your own things, you've got your own style and they shouldn't touch that.

"There's more creativity that goes into being a singer/songwriter than there is to be just an artist."

Keith's first CD with DreamWorks is titled How Do You Like Me Now?!

The song, which he co-wrote, talks about a successful adult pointing out his accomplishments to a schoolmate who teased him and never believed he would amount to much.

But since Keith was a football star in school, it's difficult to imagine he was a teased student.

"It's not autobiographical. It's just a generalization," he says.

In fact, Keith says little of his work is true to his life.

That will make his wife Tricia happy considering he's written such love-lost songs on this album as When Love Fades.

"She takes a song for what it is. I don't write too many songs that mean anything directly to me. I like to paint a better picture than that."

Keith explains you have to make life more interesting than it is to make a good song.

As an example, he points to football.

"Super Bowl is the biggest event of the year, but most of the time the game sucks. When you report on the Super Bowl, it's the hype ... What actually went on wasn't that great.

"When you write a song, it's the same way. You can't just say what went on.

"Love songs are NEVER what guys say to girls."

That said, Keith admits there is one song on the new album that does reflect his life accurately -- Heart to Heart (Stelen's Song).

"Now, that's as close as it will ever get. That's a reading of the minutes at breakfast. That's very, very close, that's the way I see it," he says of the song about his wife and son Stelen. They also have two daughters Shelley and Krystal.

The song is a sweet tribute to the relationship of a woman with her child.

"She restricts him more than I do and punishes him more than I do. He can't get me mad."