Songfacts®:

• Chase Rice doesn't hate cowboys per se. The song expresses his frustration at those cowboys that continually steal his romantic partners and his inability to prevent it. Rice's power ballad isn't overly confessional or intimate, but there is a sense of resignation and even humor in it as he accepts this familiar aspect of the cowboy lifestyle.
• They ask her to dance while you're at the bar
  Starts talkin' 'bout them Texas stars
  Next thing you know you got a broken heart
  She's gone and that's why I hate cowboys
  
  Rice wants to convey his exasperation of a cowboy stealing his girl's heart, rather than a genuine hatred of cowboys as a group. In reality, the singer has several close cowboy friends, but the allure of the cowboy lifestyle and the frustration of being unable to compete with it is a universal feeling.
  
  "Doesn't it make you crazy when Mr. Steal Your Girl kicks open the door," he explained to iHeart. "With that hat and those Wranglers, and he can two-step better than you, talk cooler than you? 'I Hate Cowboys' is an ode to the fact that just like Taylor Sheridan writes in Yellowstone, if it were easier everyone would cowboy... hell, I wish I could!"
• Rice recorded "I Hate Cowboys" for I Hate Cowboys and All Dogs Go to Hell. The album title refers to two songs on the project, this track and "All Dogs Go to Hell." Both titles are intentionally provocative but neither are what they seem to be on the surface.
• Rice and producer Oscar Charles took a different approach to recording the album, using the singer's rural home as a 24/7 workspace and bringing in a live band without a click track to achieve a raw and authentic sound. The process involved building on solo songwriting sessions and drawing inspiration from real-life experiences with friends rather than relying on Music Row writing sessions. Rice noted that Charles pushed him to deliver his best performance and strive for excellence in every aspect of the recording. "This album brought my voice and songs to life in a way people have never heard before," he told CMT.
• Brad Tursi, Ross Copperman, and Hardy originally wrote the song.
  
  It was Jake Owen who first played "Cowboys" for Rice during a trip to Cabo. Owen told him he didn't think he was the right fit for the song, and that Dierks Bentley had already cut it but wasn't going to do it. Rice reached out to Hardy and expressed his desire to make changes to the tune, specifically adding a new outro. Hardy was on board with the alterations, so Rice and Oscar Charles recorded the song.
• The video clearly demonstrates that Rice does not hate cowboys and may even aspire to be one. It pays tribute to the cowboy lifestyle with footage from the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo and cameos from several well-known rodeo stars. We see Rice walking around the ring and singing the song while the rodeo stars perform on bulls and broncs. A close viewing of the visual reveals a brief appearance by the country singer and Hall of Fame rodeo champion Chris LeDoux.