Songfacts®:

• "If I Didn't Love You" is a heartbreaking piano ballad where Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood sing of how they can't move on. In their verses, both reveal similar feelings of emotional pain. We don't know what caused the breakdown of their relationship, but it's clear they still both love each other. By the end of the song, the two are trading anguished lines as the listeners too despair why they can't get together again.
• Two of Aldean's band members, Kurt Allison and Tully Kennedy, wrote the song with John Morgan and Lydia Vaughan. The singer told Apple Music Country host Kelleigh Bannen he wanted to record a duet for his 10th album and was "trying to force it with other songs." This track came through late in the process after Allison and Kennedy decided to try to come up with something.
• When Aldean's band members presented him with this duet, he put Carrie Underwood at the top of his list. They sent it to her, she loved the song, and the timing worked out perfectly. According to Aldean, when Underwood laid down her vocals, she "just nailed it." She "took the song to a whole different place," he said.
• Jason Aldean has a history of duets with female artists, including ones with Kelly Clarkson ("Don't You Wanna Stay"), Kelsea Ballerini ("First Time Again") and Miranda Lambert ("Drowns the Whiskey").
• Aldean told Audacy the new track is a "Type A breakup song," and somewhat reminiscent of his "Don't You Wanna Stay" duet with Kelly Clarkson. "The fact that we have this big, sort of power duet is really cool," he said. "I can really only think of one other time when we've done this and that's when I cut the song with Kelly. It's a really different kind of thing for me."
• Michael Knox produced the song. A frequent collaborator with the country star throughout the years, his other Aldean credits include the hit singles "Crazy Town," "Dirt Road Anthem" and "The Only Way I Know."
• The song debuted at #2 on the Country chart, marking the highest opening for a duet between a solo male and female. The previous best debut was Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani's "Nobody But You," which arrived at #9 in December 2019 and eventually reached #2.
• Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood took the stage to sing this song live at the 2021 CMA awards. Their first-ever TV performance of "If I Didn't Love You" took place in front of a backdrop of cinder blocks and a wrecked grand piano.
• "If I Didn't Love You" won Single of the Year at the 2022 ACM Awards.
• Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood won big with "If I Didn't Love You" at the 2022 CMT Music awards. They took home both Collaborative Video of the Year and the night's top honor, Video of the Year.