Chicken Soup for the Soul: Country Music: The Inspirational Stories behind 101 of Your Favorite Country Songs

by Jack Canfield

  Yeah, we’re goin’ to Jackson, ain’t never comin’ back

  Well, we got married in a fever

  Hotter than a pepper sprout

  And we’ve been talkin’ ’bout Jackson

  Ever since the fire went out (fade out)

  Jesus Take the Wheel

  Story by Hillary Lindsey

  Song written by Hillary Lindsey, Brett James and Gordie Sampson

  Recorded by Carrie Underwood

  I wrote this song with Gordie Sampson and Brett James at my house near West End Avenue. Gordie actually came in with the title “When Jesus Takes the Wheel.” He told us that he had an aunt who always said, “Oh Jesus, take the wheel,” whenever she was frustrated or in a bind. Then Brett told us about a time when his wife Sandy actually was in an accident on the interstate. Her car went under a tractor-trailer, and she pretty much walked away without a scratch.

  We started talking about the idea. Words just started flowing from all of us. I said, “She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati.” I have no idea why I said Cincinnati because I’ve never even been to Cincinnati. It just fell out. Brett and Gordie kept adding lines and the song came together pretty quickly. That was one song that definitely came from the spirit in the corner of the room. I’m not quite sure it actually came from us.

  Not long after that, Carrie Underwood won American Idol, and of course won a record deal, and started looking for material for her first album. She heard “Jesus Take the Wheel” and it became one of her first singles and then won the Grammy for Country Song of the Year in 2006.

  I knew it was a special song with a good message, but it’s kind of funny how art imitates life. I was driving home to Georgia, oddly enough, at Christmas time — I say “oddly enough” because it’s Christmas in the song. I was going through some tough things emotionally right then. As I was driving, the song came on the radio, and the song started speaking to me, even though I was one of the writers! I cranked it up and I just started bawling. It was like the song was saying, “You can let go of this. You can let somebody else take over for you if you just let it go.”

  I’ve never had a song do that before. It was like it was saying, “Hey! Hey you! Listen to me!” It was pretty weird — being a part of giving birth to something and actually writing the words and the message, and then it not hitting me until a while later on a random night driving to Georgia.

  There were so many letters that came to us about the song. There is a man we know who works in the publishing field. His wife found out she had breast cancer when she was about five months pregnant. She had to deliver early and then go in for surgery about two days after she delivered. The baby was in the I.C.U. We sang the song at the ASCAP Country Music Awards because we won the ASCAP Song of the Year Award for “Jesus Take the Wheel.” That husband came up to us after the song that night with great big tears in his eyes saying that this was the song that got him and his wife through that difficult time together. I’ve known him for a while and he’s never been a particularly emotional man. This is a guy who hears a thousand songs a day because of his work, so the fact that this song spoke to him and meant so much to him was really special.

  Jesus Take the Wheel

  She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati

  On a snow white Christmas Eve

  Going home to see her Mama and her Daddy with the baby in the backseat

  Fifty miles to go and she was running low on faith and gasoline

  It’d been a long hard year

  She had a lot on her mind and she didn’t pay attention

  she was going way too fast

  Before she knew it she was spinning on a thin black sheet of glass

  She saw both their lives flash before her eyes

  She didn’t even have time to cry

  She was so scared

  She threw her hands up in the air

  CHORUS:

  Jesus take the wheel

  Take it from my hands

  Cause I can’t do this on my own

  I’m letting go

  So give me one more chance

  Save me from this road I’m on

  Jesus take the wheel

  It was still getting colder when she made it to the shoulder

  And the car came to a stop

  She cried when she saw that baby in the backseat sleeping like a rock

  And for the first time in a long time

  She bowed her head to pray

  She said “I’m sorry for the way

  I’ve been living my life

  I know I’ve got to change

  So from now on, tonight”

  CHORUS

  Johnny Cash Is Dead and His House Burned Down

  Story by Larry Gatlin

  Song written by Larry Gatlin and John Cash

  Recorded by Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers

  One time we were all backstage at a show somewhere, me and Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and Roger Miller and a bunch of people. And it got quiet back there for a minute — if you can believe that — and all a sudden John burst out with one of his mystical sayings. He would do that every now and then. He said, “Boys, if you get a good idea for a song, well, just go ahead and write it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hit or not. Just do the best you can and everything else will take care of itself.”

  A while back, I was in Austin, Texas. I was in the car with my son, Joshua Cash Gatlin. Josh was driving us to a restaurant with my wife, Janice, and his fiancée, who is now his wife. And he said, “Daddy, country music’s different. What’s the deal? It just doesn’t sound like it did when you and Uncle Rudy and Uncle Steve were making music. What’s wrong with it?”

  I said, “There’s nothing wrong with it son. It’s just different. They’re doing it their way. We did it our way. Johnny Cash did it his way.” I said, “We need to root for them and cheer for them. Those kids are living out their dreams and getting to do what’s in their heart. You’ve got to realize the world will never be the same. Nashville will never be the same. Country music will never be the same. After all, Johnny Cash is dead and his house burned down.”

  We got to the restaurant and I turned that placemat over and borrowed a pen from the waitress and started writing the song. I wrote the idea and part of the song and went home and wrote the rest of it. It wasn’t until a week later that I woke up at two o’clock in the morning and realized I had stolen one of John’s old melodies.

  I got up the next day and called John Carter Cash and explained to him what I had done. I called Lou Robin, who helps with John’s publishing and the estate, and told Lou what I had done and said I didn’t do it on purpose. I told him it was just as if J.R. himself were singing it in my ear. So I said, “I’ll split the royalties and split the credit. He’s the one that wrote it and it’s about him. It’s a tribute to him.”

  And it’s also just a little gentle nudge to the country music people of today. It’s got the line in it: “I got nothing against the young country stars, but I could use more fiddles and steel guitars.” In other words: Do it your way. Do what you feel in your heart, but let’s not forget upon whose broad and tall shoulders we all stand: the Johnny Cashes, the Marty Robins, and the Patsy Clines.

  Johnny Cash is Dead (and His House Burned Down)

  Well, Johnny Cash is dead and his house burned down, down, down.

  There’s a whole lotta weepin’ and wailin’ in Nashville town, Nashville town.

  Well the man in black ain’t comin’ back and Waylon ain’t a gonna come around.

  Johnny Cash is dead and his house burned down.

  Chet Atkins & Marty Robbins ain’t here to play, sing and play.

  Miss Patsy Cline was one of a kind lord knows, oh by the way,

  I got nothin’ against the young country stars, but I could use more fiddles and steel guitars,

  Johnny Cash is dead and his house burned.

  Who’s gonna strap on that black guitar, walk out a
nd sing about the way things are,

  Like the man in black singin’ “Folsom Prison Blues”? Lord have mercy, what are we gonna do?

  Johnny Cash is dead and his house burned down.

  Well, Johnny Cash is dead and his house burned down, down, down.

  There’s a whole lotta weepin’ and wailin’ in Nashville town, Nashville town.

  Well the man in black ain’t comin’ back and Waylon ain’t a gonna come around.

  Johnny Cash is dead and his house burned down.

  Letting Go

  Story by Doug Crider

  Song written by Doug Crider and Matt Rollings

  Recorded by Suzy Bogguss

  I was probably thinking about two different people when I wrote “Letting Go.” I was thinking of how my own parents must have felt when I went off to college, but I was also thinking about my mother-in-law. My wife, Suzy Bogguss, and I were married in 1986, and I wrote this maybe a year later, so I was definitely thinking of Suzy’s mom letting go of her at that point also.

  I grew up in Tampa and went off to Belmont College in Nashville. I was one of those guys who wanted to be gone. I wanted to be out of the house and on my own. I was ready but my mother wasn’t. I remember going to Nashville and my mom helping me move in and her being really emotional and having a tough time with it.

  This is one of those themes that make people sad, but it feels right to be sad about it. Somehow the singer in the song became a female. I’m not really sure how that happened. There’s a line that says, “She’s had eighteen years to get ready for this day,” which could apply to either the mother or the daughter. I hadn’t written the song to pitch to Suzy at all.

  There’s another line in the song about “the painting in the hallway that she did in junior high.” That was definitely about my wife. She was an art student and we still have the paintings that she did in junior high and high school up in our attic. They were the paintings that went with her to college and then came to Nashville when she moved here. There’s another line about “the lamp up in the attic, so she’ll have a light to study by.” A good friend of my family’s here in Nashville had a chair in her attic, and she gave it to me when I came to Belmont so I could have some place to sit and study. So the chair became a lamp, but that was based on my experience.

  I was a staff songwriter for Warner Bros. at the time, and the song got pitched around town a little, but frankly it was pretty pop for what was going on in country music at the time. The demo was pretty darn pop, too, so it got pitched some in L.A. but not very much in Nashville. This was in the middle of the “New Traditionalist” movement when Randy Travis and people like that were really hot, so the labels all wanted pure country.

  People knew it was a great song, but nobody knew what to do with it. So it sat around for a few years until Suzy did her Aces album in 1991. She said she wanted to do this, and everybody was surprised. She said, “Well, just let me do it and we’ll see what happens.” The timing was a little better then so it turned out to be a hit. It went all the way to #6.

  Oprah Winfrey did a show using the song as a theme, and then there is a radio talk show in Chicago on WGN that does an annual special using the song each fall. When it’s back-to-school time, a couple of women up there do a show where people call in and talk about their kids going off to college. The song also sells a lot of sheet music because it gets sung at a lot of commencements.

  Over the years, the song has completely turned around for Suzy. Now we have a sixteen-year-old son, so she is getting ready to be the mom in the song. Ever since Ben was born, we’ve had this song around, so we’ve always talked about it happening to us one day. It’s easy to talk about it now, but it will be a lot harder when it actually happens.

  Letting Go

  She’ll take the painting in the hallway,

  The one she did in jr. high

  And that old lamp up in the attic,

  She’ll need some light to study by.

  She’s had 18 years to get ready for this day

  She should be past the tears, she cries some anyway

  Oh, oh letting go

  There’s nothing in the way now,

  Oh letting go, there’s room enough to fly

  And even though, she’s spent her whole life waiting,

  It’s never easy letting go.

  Mother sits down at the table

  So many things she’d like to do

  Spend more time out in the garden

  Now she can get those books read too.

  She’s had 18 years to get ready for this day

  She should be past the tears, she cries some anyway.

  Oh, oh letting go

  There’s nothing in the way now,

  Oh letting go, there’s room enough to fly

  And even though, she’s spent her whole life waiting,

  It’s never easy letting go.

  Oh, oh letting go

  There’s nothing in the way now,

  Oh letting go, there’s room enough to fly

  And even though, she’s spent her whole life waiting,

  It’s never easy letting go.

  Little Rock

  Story by Tom Douglas

  Song written by Tom Douglas

  Recorded by Collin Raye

  When I wrote “Little Rock,” I had just left Nashville, never to return — or so I thought. I had come to Nashville to make it in the music business in the early 1980s, but hadn’t had much success. So I gave it all up and went to sell real estate in Dallas. It seemed like I was reinventing myself every few years back then, so this was another chance to do so. It turned out, though, the changes in the real estate laws in 1986 made it almost as tough to make it in real estate as it was to make it in the music business in Nashville, so it was pretty frustrating. It was a terrible time to be in real estate, and Texas had a lot of its own challenges with the oil boom dying off overnight.

  In the song, the guy is writing to his old girlfriend after he leaves town to try to sober up. I was never really an alcoholic myself, but I have had times in my life when I overindulged in a lot of things, so I could relate to the singer in the song. I never sold VCRs at a Walmart either, but I felt like I was when I was selling real estate. I never lived in Little Rock either, but this was in the early 1990s, and Bill Clinton was running for president, so Little Rock was in the news every time you picked up the paper. I also liked the play on words with: “I’m on a roll here in Little Rock.” That obviously wouldn’t have worked with Dallas.

  When I got to Dallas, I kept writing songs, but I gave up trying to achieve commercial success as a songwriter, and that’s when my writing got a lot better. While I was living in Dallas, I went to a songwriter’s seminar in Austin one weekend. A Nashville producer, Paul Worley, was there, and he heard the song and a verse and a chorus from another song and said he really liked them. I gave him a cassette tape to take with him, and never thought much more about it.

  When Paul got back to Nashville, I got a call from him. He said that he was going to play it for Collin Raye, who was also from Texas, and he later recorded it. It ended up being a pretty big hit for him.

  What was really rewarding for me about this song was that, at the end of the video, the label and the people who produced the video decided to put up a phone number with an 800 number for Al-Anon. I heard later that whenever that video aired, they would have thousands of calls from all over the country from people who wanted to find out more about Alcoholics Anonymous. It was really gratifying as a songwriter to know that the song had such a positive impact on so many lives.

  Little Rock

  I know I disappeared a time or two

  And along the way I lost me and you

  I needed a new town for my new start

  I’m selling VCR’s in Arkansas at a Wal-Mart

  I haven’t had a drink in 19 days

  My eyes are clear a bright without that haze

  I like the preacher from the Church of Christ

>   Sorry that I cried when I talked to you last night

  CHORUS:

  I think I’m on a roll here in Little Rock

  I’m solid as a stone baby wait and see

  I got just one small problem here in Little Rock

  Without you, baby I’m not me

  I don’t why I held it all inside

  You must have thought I never even tried

  You know your daddy told me when I left

  Jesus would forgive, but your Daddy won’t forget

  CHORUS

  Right here upon this motel bed

  My thoughts of you explode inside my head

  and like a castle build upon the sand

  I let love crumble in my hands

  CHORUS

  To purchase the original demo of this song,

  go to www.countrysongdemos.com

  Live Like You Were Dying

  Story by Craig Wiseman

  Song written by Craig Wiseman and Tim Nichols

  Recorded by Tim McGraw

  Tim Nichols and I got together one morning to write. We had a friend who had one of those misdiagnoses. The doctor had looked at an X-ray and said “Uh-oh” and our friend freaked out. It turned out to be nothing. But that led to other conversations about how people react to those events, whether they are a misdiagnosis or the real thing. We started talking about people who responded very positively. And we thought, “There’s got to be a song in that.” I started rattling off titles and I finally said, “Live Like You Were Dying,” and Tim said, “Yeah, that’s it.”

  As soon as he stopped me on that, I picked up my guitar and scatted out pieces of the first verse and the chorus. We ended up writing the second verse over the phone at midnight.

  We could tell the chorus was getting a little Hallmark-y, so we said, “We need a random weird thing in the middle just to break it up.” So Tim said, “What about horse riding or something? Horses have interesting names.” So I said, “No bulls have interesting names.” So that’s how we got to the line, “I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.”