Story Behind the Song: Tucker Beathard, ‘Rock On’

Tucker Beathard's debut single, "Rock On," landed in the Top 5 on the charts (No. 4 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart) following its release in March of 2016. The song is one of six on Beathard's freshman EP, Fight Like Hell; all six of the project's tracks were penned by Beathard and his songwriter father, Casey Beathard, with some other tunesmiths in the mix.

Marla Cannon-Goodman, a longtime family friend who's known Beathard since he was a little boy, also had a hand in writing "Rock On." Below, Cannon-Goodman recalls to The Boot the story behind the hit single.

Casey and I have been friends now for almost 17 years, and so Tucker was 5 years old when I started writing with Casey ...

Casey called me one day; I was actually writing over at Carnival, and he was at Sony. He asked me where I was, and I told him, and he said, “Come up to Sony.” I did, and he asked, “Can I play you something?”

He played this song, and the singer started singing, and I was baffled for a minute, because it sounded like Casey, but it didn’t. I said, “Who is that?” and he said, “It’s Tucker.” I said, “Are you kidding me?” He said, “No, and he wrote that song.”

I was shocked. I said, “Casey, he sounds like you, but he’s cooler than you.” I said, “I really want to write with him. I’d love to.” I called Tucker, and I was like, “I would love to write with you,” and he said, “I would love that.” So we started writing ... I absolutely love that kid.

“Rock On” was the only time Tucker and I wrote with anybody besides just the two of us. Tucker had the idea, and I was like, “This is a brilliant idea.” It was so much fun. The one line in it that cracks me up every time I hear it is, “I saw your hashtag diggin' on some new dude." It was a line Casey spit out, and me and Tucker both looked at him like, “What do you know about hashtags?”

It’s so exciting to watch Tucker, since he’s been a kid, and to be a part of that is really significant. He’s like family to me.