Story Behind the Song: Rascal Flatts, ‘My Wish’
Rascal Flatts' No. 1 hit "My Wish," was written by Jeffrey Steele and Steve Robson. The Flatts released the song in August 2006, as the third single from their Me and My Gang album. That December, it reached No. 1 on the U.S. country charts; it also hit No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 13 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart and No. 49 on the Pop 100 -- a solid crossover single. Below, Steele tells The Boot about how the song came to be.
I have four kids. In the past, I had written a song for both of my older daughters, Jessie and Casey. They always pipe up different thoughts when I write. My youngest daughter, Justine, was in the room that day and said, "Yeah, he never has written a song for me! He's got his favorite kids!" She was just giving me all this crap! [Laughs] At the time, she was 13. I said to her, "You know what ... I'm going to write a song about you today." I threw it back at her. She goes, "Yeah, right!" It just happened to be that day that Steve was coming into town from London to write with me. It's crazy ... I'll say something like that all the time, but it never really materializes.
Steve played me this music [that day], and when it was over, I asked him to play it again. It just captivated me. I just heard words coming. I started writing this song, not really thinking about writing Justine a song. I started singing, "I hope the days come easy and the moments pass slow" ... It just had a feel to it. I thought, "Wow! This is about somebody who is going somewhere with their life." Then it dawned on me ... this is Justine's song! This is it!
Once I got locked into it, "My Wish" came to me for the title. I was just thinking about how crazy the world is right now for a kid to grow up in. I started writing it like I wanted her to know whatever she did in life, somebody was thinking about her all the time. Someone was always behind her no matter what.
When I got home after recording the demo that day, I said, "I wrote you a song today." She goes, "Yeah, right." I played it for her on the stereo. She looked at me and goes, "It sounds really country." [Laughs] I told her that this song -- whatever happens with it -- this is her song. She just kind of said, "Yeah ... thanks, Dad" -- with that teenager attitude, you know?
Now, I'm getting all these letters from parents saying various things ... it's the first dance song at weddings and all this stuff. It turned into this huge thing. Honesty, that's where it fell out of. Remember when Babe Ruth said he was going to hit a home run for that kid in the hospital, and he did? It's kind of like that. The music was beautiful, and it inspired the words. Of course, now both of my other daughters are mad because this song has been the most successful song!
This story was originally written by Alanna Conaway, and revised by Angela Stefano.