Story Behind the Song: Garth Brooks, ‘All-American Kid’

When country superstar Garth Brooks asked to record Craig Campbell's "All American Kid" for his 2014 Man Against Machine album, it was a first for Campbell.

Campbell is quite a prolific songwriter, but up until then, only he had recorded his songs.

"For the first [outside cut] to be Garth, well, that’s pretty amazing," Campbell says. "He probably listens to thousands of songs.”

Campbell co-wrote "All-American Kid" with Brice Long and Terry McBride, and Brooks calls the tune "Garth Brooks country music with a hell of a lot of muscle." Below, Campbell tells The Boot about how the song came to be, and how Brooks wound up recording it.

When I wrote it, it was just an idea that I had, and I thought it was the greatest comeback story of all time. I heard about this guy coming back from the war, so we wrote the song, and I was going to put it on my new record through Bigger Picture, but then they closed.

And then we heard that Garth wanted to record it. I’m not going to tell Garth "no."

I didn’t really believe it until I got a call that they wanted me to come hear the album. The first time I heard "All-American Kid" with Garth singing it, Garth was standing right over my shoulder while I listened. It was one of those "This is not real. Someone wake me up" moments.

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