Songfacts®:

• "What If I Never Get Over You" is a lovesick breakup ballad in which Hillary Scott and Charles Kelley harmonize:
  
  What if I'm tryin', but then I close my eyes
  And then I'm right back, lost in that last goodbye
  And what if time doesn't do what it's supposed to do
  What if I never get over you
  
  The pair are lamenting the end of their relationship but are also questioning if they made the right decision.
• Lady A's Dave Haywood said: "I feel like 'What If I Never Get Over You' is a turn back to our beginning, both in the sound and the core of who we are. We love being able to put out those big questions about lost love, like 'What if time doesn't do what it's supposed to do?' or 'What if I never move on from this relationship?'"
• Sam Ellis, Ryan Hurd, Laura Veltz and Jon Green co-wrote the track, which was produced by Dann Huff. Kelley said the band jumped at the chance to record another duet as the lead single for their seventh studio album.
  
  "When we played it for our team their excitement reassured us this song was the one to lead with out of the gate. It's been a bit of our magic from day one. Our very first song in 2006, 'All We'd Ever Need,' was just written for Hillary, but she said, 'Charles, you should sing a verse too' and that's how we started the co-lead singer thing."
• One reason Lady A decided to record "What If I Never Get Over You" was because it brought to mind their 2009 hit single, "Need You Now."
  
  "To me," Dave Haywood explained to ABC Radio, "this song just stands out so much because it asks so many great questions that are unanswered. What if time doesn't do what it's supposed to do? What if I never get over you?"
  
  "I think we've all been there," he added, "and I think that's what's always been so powerful about 'Need You Now.'"
• Ryan Hurd originally had a song with the title of "If I Never Get Over You." He wanted to write it from the perspective of, "If I never got over you, what would I do? Where would I be?" When Hurd brought his idea to the other three songwriters, Laura Veltz said, "No, it's 'What If I Never Get Over You." Jon Green then started singing the chorus melody, and the track all came together.
• The song is unusual in that there's no imagery. Hurd explained to American Songwriter there was no need for any imagery to describe the feeling.
  
  "Everybody's lost somebody, whether that's somebody passing away or a relationship," he said. "That's not something you need to spoon-feed a listener. You really just gotta say it. It hits them right where they are."
• Laura Veltz revealed at a celebration of the hit that when the four writers were penning the song, they didn't have Lady Antebellum in mind; rather they penned it for Ryan Hurd to record.
  
  Hurd added he has no regrets about his decision to pass the song on to the trio. "The easiest answer is that I don't feel like I have a platform at the moment for a song like this, the way Lady A does," he explained. "They've recorded a couple of my songs where they kind of looked at me and said, 'Why didn't you do this?' 'Well, because you can make it a hit.'"