Story Behind the Song: Tanya Tucker, ‘Bring My Flowers Now’
Tanya Tucker's 2019 album While I'm Livin' includes some of her most reflective, personal work to date. The project was co-produced by Shooter Jennings and Brandi Carlile, the latter of whom also helped write the bulk of its tracks, including "Bring My Flowers Now," one of the album's most potent songs.
As Tucker explains, the songwriting process for "Bring My Flowers Now" started when Carlile suggested that they finally "write the song [Tucker] had been trying to write for 30 years." While Tucker was initially daunted by the massive task, the track actually came pretty easily -- and taught her an important lesson about not being too fanatical about perfection in her music. Read on to learn the story behind the song, as told by Tucker herself.
So I went into the restroom to think -- I do my best thinking there -- went back out, and [Brandi] was in the panel room. And we wrote this song in about 30 minutes.
And then we walked in there to the vocal booth, and the band came in, and we recorded it. I would have liked to change a few things, but no. They didn't want me to. So it was like, "Okay, ugh."
We always want perfection -- just getting somewhere in the state of it would be nice. But we always want it to be perfect. And it's never gonna be perfect. In fact, if you were perfect, nobody would like you, right?
Well, I'm a long way from it -- flaws and all. But Brandi said, "This song sticks. This is what came out of your mouth, and that's the way we're gonna put it on there."
So, thanks, Daddy -- because my daddy told me a long time ago, when I was a kid, he said, "One of the greatest, biggest songs you'll ever have, Tanya, is the one you write yourself."
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