Lonestar, ‘Not a Day Goes By’ — Story Behind the Lyrics

Steve Diamond talks to The Boot about the huge hit that he and Maribeth Derry wrote for Lonestar.

We wrote this song at my house in Nashville in 2001. Maribeth and I were thinking about loss and how hard it is to lose somebody in a relationship. We were thinking about losing someone who had died, as well. And it was very poignant to us that it was used with the soldiers in Desert Storm, in the video they used [to show] people being away from home.

But musically, sometimes there's some funny words in songs that are dictated by music! I didn't necessarily want to say "baby, baby, baby ...not a day goes by." But it just sounded so good. But apart from the word 'baby,' it really could be about someone who's passed on. Or it could still be ... with baby. So we left that in.

My wife Teri played it for [producer] Dann Huff in person several times, and each time he loved it ... but didn't have the right artist for it at the time. And then when he was doing Lonestar, she played it again, and he thought immediately that it would be perfect for them.