Songfacts®:

• The emotional centerpiece of I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go to Hell, "Bench Seat" is a harrowing true story inspired by a friend of Chase Rice. He revealed to the singer that he nearly committed suicide and it was the loving relationship he had with his pet pooch that saved him.
  
  "He told me that he almost shot himself with a .45 - but at that moment, his dog Butters came up to him and kinda looked at him funny and put his head on his lap, and that stopped him," Rice told Billboard.
• Reflecting on his friend's tale, Rice put pen to paper in January 2021. Rice recognized the emotional state his friend was in, as he had been in a similar place himself. Though he never attempted suicide, he had expressed feelings of hopelessness in a journal entry from 2012 or 2013, when he wrote, "I no longer want to be alive." His own experience made him realize the severity of his friend's situation, and how different he had become. "I wrote a lot of myself into the song," he told Apple Music.
• The song tells of a life-changing friendship between a man and his dog from the perspective of the dog. It starts with the man in a rough place, but things improve when he finds a special girl and births a son. It comes to a heart-wrenching conclusion when the man dies of an overdose.
  
  I always knew this day would come
  Just thought I'd be the first called home
  The little boy and her, don't you worry 'bout them
  I've got 'em for now, see you soon, my friend
  
  The loyal pet promises to care for his late master's wife and son.
• For the video, Chase employed Kaiser Cunningham, who also directed his "Way Down Yonder" and "I Hate Cowboys" visuals. They shot it over the course of two days outside Nashville. "For the first time in my career," Rice told People, "I could envision the whole video as I was writing the song."
• In the video, Chase Rice portrays an addict who battles to overcome his struggles. He finds solace in a furry companion, Jack, who is Rice's real-life dog. The character undergoes rehab, where he meets someone who becomes a love interest, played by Lauren Whistle. With the help of this new partner and his loyal dog, he gradually regains his happiness. However, just as in the song, the video concludes with a heartbreaking twist, as the character ultimately dies from an overdose.
  
  "The reason I wanted to do that," Rice explained to Apple Music, "was because I wanted to show, 'This is what's going to happen if you do that. You're going to miss out on all this good stuff.'"