Story Behind the Song: Chris Young, ‘Raised on Country’
When Chris Young set out to write "Raised on Country," the lead single for his seventh studio album, he was looking for a sound he'd never expressed on a record before, but one that still felt very true to him. From the moment he cut the track, however, Young knew he had something special.
Young's excitement was validated even more when, after he teased the song on social media, one particularly special fan responded to the tune. Read on to learn the story behind "Raised on Country," in the artist's own words.
[We were] sitting on the bus, talking about the energy you get back from a crowd. I was like, "I really want something that can be anthemic, but I also really want it to be me." It's really tough sometimes: There's days when it's really, really easy to write a song, and 95 percent of those times, it's a love song or a thought that I've already expressed on a record. We were really trying to chase something that I had not said before.
[The idea is about] who I am, but also kind of an idea [about] being raised on country, how people grew up, and who I grew up listening to.
One of the things that I geeked out about harder than just about anything else that's happened is, we posted the very first tease of it, and Joe Diffie commented on my Instagram. I was like, "Alright!" If he only knew how many hours I spent listening to him sing.
So the song is just one of those things that is not the norm, and I love it, not only as the title of the record, but as the title of the tour. It's been really special to me, from the first moment I listened to it.
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