Songfacts®:

• George Strait penned this tune with Jamey Johnson, who is best known for "In Color," which was named Song of the Year at the 2009 ACM Awards. "Kicked" is one of two new recordings that Strait laid down for his Strait Out of the Box: Part 2 box set.
• The two songwriters weren't in the same state let alone the same room when they wrote the song. The pair did it by texting lyrics back and forth.
  
  "We wrote it all with texting," Strait explained. "We wrote the whole song texting. [laughs] Well, I mean people do it all the time now. It's so common. I see Bubba Skyping and writing with somebody somewhere and it's just so easy to do. Yeah, I just started scribbling stuff down and I'd send it, he'd send something back, I'd send something back and that's the way it happened."
• The song is about that point when a country star sees their popularity dipping. "It's just something that happens at some point in everyone's career," said Strait. "It doesn't mean I have to like it, but 'cause I always expected it was gonna come at some point. It's a little hard to take after all these years to release something at radio, and it doesn't get played anymore because for so long I just kinda got used to hearing things on the radio. Anyway, the song's kinda about that."
  
  "I've been very fortunate, don't get me wrong," he added. "I've had a lot of longevity in this business, and I'm very grateful for it. I've got a lot of great fans out there who still support me. They come out to my shows in Vegas and it's a great night. It's great seeing 'em, and I'm very blessed."