Steve Azar, ‘Hard Road’ — Story Behind the Lyrics

Steve Azar talks to The Boot about his latest single, 'Hard Road,' which he co-wrote with James House.

It's funny ... it's always the second song. It's the ones that you don't know you're going in to write, and that you don't have figured out or haven't thought about all night.

James House and I were writing one of the songs that's on the record ['Slide on Over Here'], and I got a call about a friend of mine whose relationship was plummeting because of the economy. It was affecting their kids, leading them down the wrong path. James and I were going, "Our wives are crazy to stick with us! We've been on this crazy, roller coaster nutty thing ... How have they stuck with us?"

We started talking about how it's been a "hard road." One person gets really tired and the other person always has a way of picking you up, thus the analogy of the car [in the song]. The car is sort of a metaphor. You get in this capsule and ride through the mess and take the wheel from me when the burden gets too heavy.

The chorus offers all the hope: "You know, it's going to be alright. We're going to get to the light. We've just got to get through this mess."

Our economy and our world is in it for quite a while to come. It's been disheartening to see so many relationships fall. A lot of them acquired so much [bad] stuff that they couldn't keep what their relationship was built on. It's easy for me to sit here and say that, but I fight for that daily. I pray for it daily. The hope is that I can keep going, moving forward, to continue to give my kids and wife everything I feel like they deserve, especially my kids. I want them to have the opportunity to be raised in a great atmosphere. I don't take that for granted. So the road is hard right now and it's hard for my record label. It's extremely complicated for me, but it's hard for everybody in their own walks of life.