Songfacts®:

• This is the lead single from Country music singer Jamey Johnson's fourth studio album, The Guitar Song. The long player is a 25-song double album with tracks containing recurring themes that are included on either "The Black Album," or "The White Album." Said Johnson, "It is an album that is a tale. The first part is a very dark and sordid story. Then everything after that is progressively more positive, reassuring and redemptive."
• Johnson told The Boot that the ambitious project was not what he originally set out to accomplish. "When I started off, it was just songs I'd recorded, one for That Lonesome Song and some other ones I had intended being on different records," he explained.
• Matthew McConaughey directed the song's music video and also appears in the clip. Johnson first met the actor backstage at the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2009 in Las Vegas, right after winning the Song of the Year trophy for "In Color." McConaughey told Johnson he had been listening to his album That Lonesome Song non-stop and even quoted lyrics from a few tracks. After that first meeting, they became close friends and when discussions began regarding the music video for this song, Johnson immediately called his buddy to ask if he would make a cameo appearance. After several discussions, McConaughey decided he wanted to direct the music video since he had so many ideas for the concept. In the clip, McConaughey "plays the part" of director as well as actor.
  "Jamey and this song both have a great sense of humor, so I wanted the video to have a 'wink' to it," said McConaughey. "This is a story with a beginning, middle and a surprise at the end. I started out with a 250-pound stripper leaving work in the morning, and ended up with a man in a gorilla suit getting fired from a used tire store."