ACM Awards 2017: The stories behind the songs
NASHVILLE — Country music singers and fans will descend on Las Vegas on Sunday for the 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards, which will air live from T-Mobile Arena at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley will host the show, which will include performances from Faith Hill, Sam Hunt, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett, Chris Stapleton, Carrie Underwood, Bryan, Bentley with Cole Swindell, Rascal Flatts and more.
Urban has a field-leading seven nominations, followed by Miranda Lambert and Maren Morris with six nods apiece and Florida Georgia Line and Tim McGraw each with five mentions.
However, it all begins with a song — and each song has a story.
We compiled the stories behind all six ACM Song of the Year nominees.
'Vice'
Artist: Miranda Lambert
Songwriters: Miranda Lambert, Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne
Miranda Lambert told The Tennessean in July that she wrote “Vice” “at the exact time of the s--t hitting the fan.”
“I think it’s great, though,” she explained. “It’s documented on paper with emotion.”
In the song, Lambert sings:
"Another vice/ Another call/ Another bed I shouldn't crawl out of/ At 7 a.m. with shoes in my hand/ Said I wouldn't do it, but I did it again/ And I know I'll be back tomorrow night."
“Vice” was written about two years ago, around the time her divorce from country singer Blake Shelton was made public. Shelton and Lambert have both moved on to new relationships, but Lambert’s rawness in that time period is laid bare in the song. She said a couple of the vices she sings about in the song are her own, but she thinks that normal.
"Everybody has a vice they run to when they need comfort, and I think that’s what this song says," she said. "I run to things for comfort just like everybody else.”
“Vice” was the first single from Lambert’s double album The Weight of These Wings, which was released in November.
'Tennessee Whiskey'
Artist: Chris Stapleton
Songwriters: Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove
Chris Stapleton was a toddler the night Dean Dillon met Linda Hargrove at Bluebird Cafe more than 35 years ago and went back to her house to write “Tennessee Whiskey.”
“We wound up going home together, but not for what everybody thought,” recalls Dillon. “Her sister, the whole time, was standing there giving me the evil eye.”
He said an idea for lyrics had been with him for a while: "You’re as smooth as Tennessee Whiskey/ As sweet as strawberry wine."
It was near 4 a.m. and Dillon said the pair wrote the song in 90 minutes. He pitched the song to George Strait, who turned it down. However, George Jones recorded the song as did David Allan Coe and Brad Paisley.
When Dillon heard Stapleton was cutting the song, he knew the potential was there for it to be a career hit.
“I was darn sure well aware of what a great vocalist he was,” Dillon said. “The next thing I know, he’s on the CMA Awards with Justin Timberlake singing ‘Tennessee Whiskey.’ It pretty much blew up his career overnight.”
The next day, Dillon called record label executives and told them they were fools if they didn’t immediately release “Tennessee Whiskey” as a single. They didn’t take his advice, but Dillon isn’t complaining.
“I got a pretty good (royalty) check today,” he quipped. “I’m pretty happy.”
“Tennessee Whiskey” is from Stapleton’s 2015 album Traveller.
'Kill a Word'
Artist: Eric Church
Songwriters: Eric Church, Jeff Hyde, Luke Dick
Eric Church thinks “Kill a Word” is his smartest song to date.
Co-written by Church, Jeff Hyde and Luke Dick, “Kill a Word” is about the desire to do away with hate-filled, negative words.
Lyrics include:
"If I could kill a word and watch it die/ I’d poison never, shoot goodbye/ Beat regret when I felt I had the nerve/ Yeah, I’d pound defeat into a pile of sand/ Choke lonely out with my bare hands/ I’d hang hate so that it can’t be heard."
Hyde and Dick had already written the first verse of “Kill a Word” when Church walked in the room. Within 10 minutes, the singer sketched out the chorus and when the three reconvened, Church said the second verse just fell out.
The initial writing session happened more than three years ago. And when Church put “Kill a Word” on his Mr. Misunderstood album, he never thought it would be a single. But as he watched the world change around him, he realized the song was demanding to be heard.
“You look at ... the division and all the things that are happening in the world and it was around the election time,” Church said. “There was just all this vitriol and hate and all this stuff happening. It was around the time of the Orlando nightclub shooting. I’ve never had that situation before where it became very clear to me that we have to release this. There’s never going to be a better time, and there’s never been a better song for this time.”
“Kill a Word” is from Church’s November 2015 album, Mr. Misunderstood.
'Die a Happy Man'
Artist: Thomas Rhett
Songwriters: Joe Spargur, Sean Douglas and Thomas Rhett
Joe Spargur and Sean Douglas are known best for writing pop songs. But when they teamed with Thomas Rhett, their combined knowledge fed Rhett’s six-week No. 1 hit, “Die a Happy Man.”
Rhett said they knew they wanted to write a personal love song about their significant others, and because Rhett is the artist, he said his wife, Lauren, served as the song’s inspiration. “Die a Happy Man” is the first song they wrote together.
“We all knew we had something pretty special. But as an artist and as a writer, you never know how good a song is until it gets on the radio and people have the chance to respond to it. But my whole label was (telling me), ‘Dude, I think this is a career song for you.’ I think that’s exactly what it was up to this point. I think when a lot of people hear the name Thomas Rhett, I think their minds immediately go to ‘Die a Happy Man.’ ”
Rhett attributes a portion of the song’s success to a shortage of love songs on country radio when it was released as well as its sparse production. The singer also thinks the open adoration he and his wife have for each other on social media enforced the song’s authenticity for fans.
“I think the fans just really, truly believe the intimacy and the genuineness of that song, and I really couldn’t imagine a cooler outcome of a co-write with people I had never written with before,” Rhett said.
“Die a Happy Man” is from Rhett’s 2015 album Tangled Up.
'Humble and Kind'
Artist: Tim McGraw
Songwriter: Lori McKenna
Lori McKenna meant to write a prayer to her five children — what she got was country music’s most celebrated song of 2016.
“Humble and Kind,” recorded by Tim McGraw, is the first song by a solo writer to top the country radio airplay charts in more than four years. In addition, McKenna’s melodic words to live by were also named Song of the Year at the 50th Country Music Association Awards in November and crowned Best Country Song at the Grammy Awards in February.
McKenna wrote “Humble and Kind” where she writes almost everything else, at her dining room table. She had just dropped her two youngest children off at school and was thinking of things she hoped she and her husband had taught them.
“It’s really just a list,” McKenna said of the song. “At the time, my youngest was 10 (years old), so that’s why the chorus is so elementary. ‘Hold the door, say please,’ all those things we repeatedly repeat to our younger kids. I tried to make sure I added some lines for the older kids as well, which is where the ‘sleeping with someone you love’ line came from.”
Even when it was finished, McKenna said, she still viewed “Humble and Kind” as a “simple prayer.” But McGraw saw it as a tool to make a difference.
“Tim ... took it to a place I never would have had the ability to take it,” McKenna said. “I feel like we wrote it together. I may have written down the words, but he crafted the journey. It’s been a huge blessing to me and my family.”
“Humble and Kind” is from McGraw’s 2015 album Damn Country Music. McKenna also included the song on her Grammy-nominated The Bird & the Rifle.
'Blue Ain’t Your Color'
Artist: Keith Urban
Songwriters: Clint Lagerberg, Hillary Lindsey and Steven Lee Olsen
Steven Lee Olsen’s publishing company was under strict orders not to pitch “Blue Ain’t Your Color” to anyone. Olsen, previously signed with Sony Music Nashville, had spent the last year recording an album that was never released. His contract abruptly ended, his album was never released, and he thought “Blue Ain’t Your Color” was his ace to get him back in the game.
Then Missi Gallimore called.
Olsen grew up in Canada listening to country music. He didn’t wear a hat. He didn’t have a twang. He thought Nashville was a pipe dream until he saw Keith Urban.
“I remember me with my guitar in my mom’s living room watching CMT and (Urban’s) ‘Someone Like You' came on,” Olsen said. “And I’m jamming. I remember the first time because it made me realize I didn’t have to be anything I wasn’t. It gave me the courage to move to Nashville.”
Olsen made the move 11 years ago. After losing his record deal and the promise of his album coming out, Olsen admits he was feeling low. When his publishing company called to double check that “Blue Ain’t Your Color” couldn’t be pitched, Olsen confirmed it again. When he heard it was Gallimore calling for Urban, his tune changed. But he said if Urban didn’t take it, no one else could hear the song.
“Blue Ain’t Your Color” not only became Urban’s fourth No. 1 song off Ripcord, it was also the most streamed country song for 13 weeks.
“Keith gave me the wind the first time to move here and here he is again, giving this song wind again,” Olsen said. “He continues to inspire me. There’s no one else I would rather look up to.”
All Urban can say is thank you.
“Those songs are rare,” Urban explained. “You just don’t give them away frivolously.”