Story Behind the Song: Chuck Wicks, ‘Man of the House’

On his 2008 album Starting Now, Chuck Wicks included the song "Man of the House," a tune that he wrote with Mike Mobley. Wicks released the song as a single in January of 2009, and it peaked in the Top 30 (No. 27) on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Below, Wicks recalls penning the tune.

Mike and I started talking about the war overseas; a lot of songs are written about the war, but sometimes we forget to talk about how we deal with that back home. "Man of the House" is a song about a family: They love each other and are supporting each other; they are everyday Americans, and the dad has to go overseas and do what he does best.

We wanted to write it from the standpoint of how that family and how that little kid, the man of the house, deals with it while his dad is overseas. We talked about all the real things we thought about growing up as a kid: what our favorite cereal was, and everything else. [The lyrics say] "6AM, Bobby's waking up / Rolling out of bed with sleepy eyes / He pours two bowls full of Captain Crunch" -- all the things that are just real life and what a kid would do to help around the house, help his mom out and to help his little sister.

The best thing about it is, it's all positive. Nobody dies; nobody is upset; everybody loves everybody. I think that's what we wanted to bring out of the story with "Man of the House": We wanted to show a different side of how the war affects people -- something that people know about, but maybe hasn't been said yet through song. That's why this song is so special to me ...

It's almost like the war brought the family closer together. You realize what you've got, what you're fighting for.

This story was originally written by Deborah Evans-Price, and revised by Angela Stefano.