Songfacts®:

• The song was written by Shelton's fiancee, Miranda Lambert, and Lady Antebellum's Hillary Scott. The pair penned the tune in the summer of 2009 while they were on tour with Kenny Chesney. "It was one of the many nights I hopped on her bus and we stayed up late just drinking wine and playing music and writing music, Scott told The Boot. "And I actually sang background vocals on Blake's cut of that song, and I'm looking forward to hearing it. He sang the crap out of it from what I heard in the studio… it's a real passionate number."
• "Suffocating" is a track from Blake Shelton's second "Six Pak," All About Tonight, a concept that he and his record label decided to experiment with in 2010 starting with Hillbilly Bone. A "Six Pak" is a set of six songs released at a lower price than a full album. It allows Shelton to release material more frequently.
• Shelton told Billboard: "They played it for me to get me to [do] the guitar/vocal for them and I made them promise not to give it to anybody else. It's called 'Suffocating.' It's a love-gone-wrong song."
• Shelton recalled to The Boot: "Miranda had been on the road with Lady Antebellum, and she flew out to one of my shows. She said, 'I'm excited. I wrote this song, listen to it... I think it's a guy song.' I listened to it and said, 'Don't pitch it to anybody! I wanna cut this thing, and lets bring in Hillary to do the harmony for the recording.' So we did, and the only other voice on the track is Hillary singing harmony."