Songfacts®:

• Penned by Jennifer Nettles with Hillary Lindsey and Ashley Gorley, this song is about domestic violence. "I wanted it to have a different subject matter, and I also wanted it to have something that could possibly help people at the same time," she said. "So I had come up with this idea for a chorus of 'His Hands."
  
  "I love the moment in the song during the performance when people realize that there's a twist," Nettles added. "Because when you hear the chorus after the first verse, you assume that it's about an intimate, passionate encounter. And then when you start to hear the second verse, you start to realize, 'Something else is going on here.' And by the time you hear the second chorus, you realize 'This is a completely different 'his hands on me,' than I originally thought. I love that moment of discovery whenever that happens in the audience."
• The song is a duet with singer-songwriter Brandy Clark, who opened for Nettles on her That Girl Tour. "What I love about what Brandy brings to this song is that our voices are very different," Nettles commented. "Her voice has a sweet vulnerability to it, that I think almost makes the character in the second verse that much more believable and authentic."
• Brandy Clark also features in the song's Shaun Silva and Valarie Allyn Bienas-directed music video, which was shot at the House of Blues in Las Vegas.