IT WAS an otherwise normal morning awhile back, but I was scheduled to do something a bit out of the ordinary: talk to comedian Jeff Foxworthy via conference call.

I imagined him pressed for time, tersely answering questions from a studio in L.A., or at least from some posh conference room at a public-relations firm in Burbank.

What I got instead was a down-to-earth, polite and super nice guy calling from the kitchen of his home near Atlanta.

He had already taken his girls, and their cousins, to school, as he's done for years and hopes to keep on doing for a few more years until his youngest graduates from high school.

"Family has always been my priority, not show business," said the comedian who does stand-up, hosts the TV show "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" writes best-selling books and has been part of the amazingly successful "Blue Collar Comedy" tours.

Indeed, the proud dad, who spent nearly an hour answering every question reporters from four or five cities had for him, said he's turned down movies and other projects that would require him to be away from his daughters and family.

"I lived in L.A. for eight years, but moved to Atlanta 14 years ago, wanting my children to grow up around family," he said. "I live next to my brother and his three daughters. Every day, I've driven five girls to school."

He added: "It's worked out. The stand-up and '5th Grader' I can do while they're in school. I'll run out on Friday or Saturday night to do shows or what have you."

Yes, there have been comedy tours that took him away, but connections were kept.

He's not a real high-tech guy, said Foxworthy, who has just published his second successful children's book, "Hide."

"I still write everything out on yellow notepads: TV scripts, jokes, children's books," he said. "I get up early, get the kids off to school and pull out the yellow pad."

His daughters helped to nudge him in the direction of writing children's books; he's penned more than 20. Reading to them every night has been an important part of the Foxworthy family tradition.