Songfacts®:

• "Tough People" is a stirring anthem where Drew Baldridge tips his hat to an eclectic ensemble of tough cookies: grandmothers enduring pain while slinging plates at diners, families rallying around children battling cancer, and a police officer sprinting toward danger in a school.
• The song came to life on a sweltering Nashville afternoon on July 24, 2023, in Writing Room 2 at Sony Music Publishing. Baldridge joined forces with fellow artist Adam Sanders and songwriter Jordan Walker, whose credentials include penning Luke Combs' chart-topper "When It Rains It Pours." Sanders, inspired by a Joe Rogan podcast, pitched the idea "hard times make tough people."
  
  Walker tweaked the hook to "tough times make tough people" and plucked out a riff in drop-D tuning that added just the right amount of grit.
• The opening verse sets the stage in a tornado-ravaged Midwestern town. "In my little town, one year, the cafeteria roof got ripped clean off, and a couple of farmers lost their barns," Baldridge reminisced to Billboard. "The next morning, everyone was out there, fixing what needed fixing." It's the kind of community spirit Norman Rockwell would paint if he dabbled in post-apocalyptic scenarios.
  
  Then comes a gut-wrenching turn: a four-year-old girl facing cancer in Memphis, likely at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. "Three grown men crying in a writing room - that was us," Walker said.
  
  The song's emotional crescendo arrives with a soldier coming home in a flag-draped casket and a police officer risking their life during a school shooting. Nashville's Covenant School tragedy loomed large in their minds, a somber reminder of the song's real-world stakes. The writers wrestled with whether to include such a raw topic but ultimately agreed it needed to be said. "I've got two little girls in daycare," Walker admitted. "I can't imagine the worry."
• Despite the heavy subject matter, the chorus offers a defiant rallying cry:
  
  Hard work pays off, good beats evil,
  And tough times make tough people
• Producer Nick Schwarz leaned into the track's intensity, giving it a sonic punch to match its emotional heft. He plays acoustic guitar and percussion, sings background vocals and does the drum and synthesizer programming. The other musicians are:
  
  Gideon Klein: dobro, pedal steel guitar
  Jacob Lowery: bass guitar
  Danny Rader: bouzouki. acoustic guitar
  Kris Donegan: electric guitar
  Justin Ostrander: electric guitar
  Cory Williams: additional vocals
  Jacob Arnold: percussion, drums
• When Luke Combs heard an acoustic version, he was floored and rewrote a couple of lines while keeping the school shooting reference intact. "One of the responding officers [at Covenant] is a canine officer for Metro Nashville," Walker explained. "He lives on Luke's property and trains dogs there. Luke said, 'If anything, that line is staying.'" Combs demoed a duet version with Lainey Wilson, but Baldridge ultimately decided to keep the song.
• The accompanying music video, shot in Baldridge's hometown of Patoka, Illinois, features real residents whose stories echo the song's themes. Directed by Dustin Haney, it's as much a visual love letter to resilience as the song is an auditory one.