Songfacts®:

• This track finds Brett Eldredge singing about finding love. "For me, 'Long Way' stands out as such a powerful look at love and that search for something deeper," the singer said. "It's about that big moment when you finally meet the person you've been waiting to meet, and you want to know everything about them. You don't just want a quick breeze through their hometown and life, you want to take the long way. It's a beautiful sentiment about love."
• Eldredge first performed the song earlier in 2017, while supporting Luke Bryan on his Huntin', Fishin' and Lovin' Every Day tour. "I feel like, it's a love song, but it's a much deeper kind of love song than anything I've written, in a certain way," Eldredge told The Boot at the time. "[It talks about how] I want to know way more about you: I want to go much deeper, and that's the kind of love I'm looking for. And so, I think it's such a deep lyric; I think it's something I haven't touched on yet."
• Brett Eldredge penned the song with Matt Rogers during their first songwriting session. It was Rogers who brought the idea of a new love's back story to the table and Eldredge was excited by the concept.
  
  "In a world where we don't have conversations anymore," he told Taste of Country. "I wanna sit down and have a conversation. Put away the phones, put away everything and I wanna get to know you as a person. I want to get to know your heart."
• Brett Eldredge recalled the songwriting session with Matt Rogers that produced this song to The Boot:
  
  "He came to my place, walked in the door, and we sat down. Within 10 minutes, he had this idea that he wanted to run by him. This little - [sings] 'Take me the long way around' - he had this little piece of a chorus.
  
  I was struck by the whole idea of it. It was so authentic and endearing, in a way, for me, in a vulnerable place of you very much getting down to a conversation with someone you feel you have a connection with, and then really getting to know them deep down, their heart and their soul - taking a long way around their town for conversation. It really hit below the surface, and asking them questions that they're not used to being asked, and really getting to know that person."
• The song's music video captures Brett Eldredge spending the day with a love interest. The girl is played by Sadie Robertson from the TV show Duck Dynasty.
  
  "In my Instagram feed, I'd seen videos of Sadie Robertson," Eldredge told ABC Radio. "It was just like, 'I just love her personality. She seems like a great person.' She's everything that this song captures in the lyrics."
  "You know it's like, 'We've got to find a girl like Sadie,'" he added. "And somebody was like, 'Why don't we just ask Sadie?'"
  
  "She's a big country fan," Eldredge continued. "She loved the song and jumped on board, and it was just a really fun experience. And she's a great person, and it just really came across. You could tell we were really enjoying the experience. It was awesome."
• The song is aspirational, and describes the kind of relationship Eldredge hopes to find.
  
  "I want to have somebody, along with me, along for the ride and share that with them," he told ABC Radio candidly. "I'm opening up more to it, and I think now, yeah, something like 'The Long Way' is what I'm looking for."
  
  "What I'm kinda looking for, is to find that deep kind of soul, deep kind of person with an amazing heart that I can really get to know," Eldredge continued. "And probably take it slow, you know, and just kinda take 'The Long Way' around their town. And that's kinda where I am in life. So I'm definitely open to it more than I think I ever was."