Songfacts®:

• Jake Owen originally wrote this song back in the 2000s with David Lee Murphy and Brett James the morning after the CMA Awards in Nashville.
  
  Owen recalled to Taste of Country that Kellie Pickler had presented an award in a black leather outfit and when she came out, he exclaimed: "damn!" He added:
  
  "It occurred to me that my stylist, Jennifer Kemp, used to always say to me - every time I put on clothes to try something on - she'd go, your mama should've named you damn! So that next morning, I told that story to David Lee Murphy and Brett James and I said we've got to write a song about this girl that's just like, her mama should've named her damn."
• Owen laid down a rough acoustic version of "Damn" which has been on YouTube since 2008, but it wasn't included on a studio album for another decade. The singer explained it harks back to the classic sounds of the '90s and when he wrote it the new wave of music such as his "Barefoot Blue Jean Night" was taking off, so the timing was out. By 2019, Owen felt the circle had come around and '90s country was back.