Songfacts®:

• Virginia native Canaan Smith relocated to Nashville during his college years and began to gig in the local bars and clubs. Smith achieved his first credit on a hit single after landing a publishing deal when he co-wrote "Runaway" for Love and Theft. He eventually landed a recording contract with Mercury Records and released his debut single, "We Got Us," early in 2012.
• This is Smith's second single and it has a straightforward message. "I just love how the song is about loving your woman long and strong," said Smith. "It's kind of a tough guy's perspective on how he's gonna love his woman and treat her."
• Canaan Smith wrote this song with Brett and Jim Beavers. "We started thinking about cool metaphors like the flow of the Mississippi," Smith recalled of his co-writing session with the Beavers brothers. "That river moves pretty damn slow, and we thought that'd be a sexy line to talk about loving somebody that slowly. It was one of those moments where you're going for it, reaching, digging as deep as we could for metaphors and at the end of the day we had no idea this would be a hit single. You just never know, but it definitely felt special in the moment."
• Smith commented that the song is real in every sense of the word. "I think 'Love You Like That' is just a perfect example of how a man's man can still say I love you without sounding like a girly girl," he said. "I think the country guys out there, they're not shying away from singing this song because it's kind of just like every day dude, just part of our everyday lives is finding the love of your life and that's a good thing to hold on to."
  
  "When you find it let them know how long you're going to love them, long as till the sun comes back and even longer than that, 'slow as the Mississippi,' strong as whiskey. Be proud of that love," Smith continued. "Be proud of what you've got. And I think people are staking their claim and saying, 'That's who I am.'"