Story Behind the Song: Little Big Town, ‘Lean Into It’

When the members of Little Big Town and their longtime collaborator Wayne Kirkpatrick wrote "Lean Into It" -- which appears on the country quartet's 2010 album, The Reasons Why -- the lyrics came from a very personal place for each of the band's members. Individually and as a group, they have weathered a host of professional and personal storms in their rise to the top ... but they have always persevered. Below, LBT's Karen Fairchild tells The Boot about writing the song, and how it's become a touchstone for their fans.

We had been writing with Wayne, and he was talking about how much we've been through together. He said he was inspired to write a song after thinking about how much each of us had been through since forming the band.

Some people think that things have always been easy for us, but we've been through a lot of personal and professional tragedies -- a lot. We've always done what we had to do to get to the other side. We started talking about it, and how you have to rely on those you love, and faith and life, to get through things.

We all wrote the song together. We wanted to tell how, when trouble comes, you should lean into it and you'll make it to the other side. That's what we did, and we made it to the other side as a unit.

It's a message of hope, really, and very powerful. It has a life of its own, and we feel like it was a gift that we wrote it ... The song can have a lot of different meanings, too ... It's just a very special song.

This story was originally written by Nancy Dunham, and revised by Angela Stefano.

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