How I Got to Be This Way

Album: Justin Moore (2009)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song is the opening track on Country music artist Justin Moore's self-titled debut album.
  • This was co-written by the country music songwriter Rivers Rutherford, whose résumé includes the #1 country song of 2001, Brooks & Dunn's "Ain't Nothing 'Bout You." Moore told Great American Country about their collaboration: "Rivers has more hits than I will have in the next 30 years as a writer and it was cool to write with him. That was the only time we've written. When you get in these rooms with folks you've never written with before, you kind of B.S. for a while and learn about each other."
  • Moore told Great American Country about how he and Rutherford came to write this autobiographical song: "He was just asking me how I grew up and what kind of kid I was. I said, 'I was a pretty good kid. I mean, I did some stupid stuff like any other kid does, but for the most part I was pretty good.' I said something like, 'I guess that's how I got to be this way,' and he said, 'Right there. What was some of the stuff you did?' I told him I totaled my dad's truck on Dixonville curve when I was in high school, and we went from there. The first line says, 'I rolled my dad's truck off the Dixonville curve after drinking my fifth beer.' That's a pretty true song. Most of the stuff that happened in it actually happened. There's a pretty funny line in the song that says something about getting kicked in the face by a horse. Everybody is always like, 'No way.' I said, 'That's my excuse for why my face looks like this.'"
  • This was a last minute addition to the Justin Moore album. Moore explained to The Boot: "I had about everything done for the album [when] I found the demo for that song in my iPhone when I was on my radio tour. I was with a guy from the label, and I said, 'Man, listen to this song... I just found it. I had kind of forgotten about it.' He goes, 'Dude, we've got to put this on the album!' You know me, I'm kind of laid back and nonchalant. I was like, 'alright... whatever.' So I'm glad we put it on there."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New Words

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New WordsSong Writing

Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.

Adele

AdeleFact or Fiction

Despite her reticent personality, Adele's life and music are filled with intrigue. See if you can spot the true tales.

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.