Songfacts®:

• According to Leigh Nash, "God Only Knows" is the most perfect song ever written, and "What's Behind Me" pays homage to the Beach Boys' classic number. She explained to American Songwriter: "I think the melody and the lyric together are completely perfect. They fit like a hand in a glove. It's immaculate. I don't know how else to describe it. The feeling I get when I listen to that song… every time, too. It stops me in my tracks and I have to listen in detail because it's so awesome."
  
  "I was talking about that song with one of the guys I write with one morning and we ended up writing one of the songs on the album as a tip of the hat to that song. It's called 'What's Behind Me' and it's kind of a tribute to 'God Only Knows.'"
• The song is about being frustrated with yourself. "I've been in that position most of my life," Nash confessed to Taste of Country. "It goes back to that vulnerability. I'm vulnerable with myself."
  
  "I think some people have a hard time accepting things or owning things," she continued. "I'm the first person to own a mistake. A line in the chorus is, 'How many times can I trip on something behind me.' I keep doing the same stuff that I know hurts me. It's very vulnerable, but it comes straight from the chapter out of my book."