Songfacts®:

• In this ballad, Chris Young sings of his overwhelming grief following the loss of a dear friend.
  
  I can't help that all I think about is
  How you were taken way too soon
  It ain't the same here without you
  I gotta say missin' you comes and waves
  And tonight I'm drowning
  
  Young laments that his pal was taken away far too soon.
• Young wrote "Drowning" with frequent collaborators Josh Hoge ("Losing Sleep") and Corey Crowder ("Raised on Country"). In a press release, Young explained that they were each thinking of "someone that we lost way too soon." For him, that was his best friend Adam, who died as a result of a car accident.
• Chris Young debuted this song at the Grand ole Opry on June 10, 2019. Near the end of his stirring performance the emotions hit Young like a wave. He was overcome, and despite the crowd's encouragement, couldn't finish the tune.
• Corey Crowder's songwriting session with Josh Hoge and Chris Young took place on December 5, 2017. In the morning prior to their get-together, he had heard someone mention during a broadcast how the emotions from a breakup come in waves.
  
  "I was kind of sitting there reflecting on it," he recalled to Billboard. "It hit me that that would be a crazy way to write a song about death, because if missing you comes in waves, then I'm drowning. The image hit me like a giant wave crushing you."
  
  Crowder suggested the idea when Hoge and Young arrived at his studio and each proceeded to draw on their own stories of loss: Young and Hoge recalled friends who had died young; Crowder channeled his mom's thoughts about her own deceased mother.
• The song deals with the grief that comes with losing someone important in your life. The three made the lyrics personal enough for Young to sing about his loss, but also open-ended enough that listeners could apply their own stories to it. "It's just vague enough to where it could be applicable to whatever your specific scenario was," Crowder told Billboard.
• Young directed the personal music video alongside Jeff Johnson (" Hangin' On"). The clip opens with the singer holding up a picture of his late friend, Adam Carnes. As the clip continues, shots of Young performing "Drowning" are interspersed with fans who attended Young's Richmond, Virginia Raised on Country tour stop holding out photos of the ones they're missing.
  
  The performance footage was filmed at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It was Young's first headlining show in the city since the 2017 Route 91 shooting. Fans were asked to light up their phones during his performance in honor of the victims and survivors of the tragic event.