90 to Nothing

Album: Southpaw (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a song from Mac Powell's sophomore country solo album, Southpaw. The Alabama native is best known for fronting Christian rockers Third Day and was asked by Taste of Country if the writing process is different for his Nashville records in terms of the kind of subject matter he can consider. "Absolutely," Powell replied. "Doing Christian music, it's such a serious subject, and so there's so many songs that are serious. And it's hopeful, and it's encouraging, but what's so much fun about country music is being free to write these stories, to be just kind of able to make up stories."

    Powell added that this song is, "just basically a girl broke my heart, and she's coming back to town so I'm leaving kind of story."

    "Well, that's not really something that's true in my life, but I get to kind of play this character, It's like writing for a movie or TV show," he continued. "I get to play this character and totally make up this story, and that's fun. And it's not that it's not done in Christian music, but it's not done as much. In country music, that's kind of what it is."
  • The song is a collaboration with country music singer Travis Tritt, whom Powell first met many years previously. "People have told me that we have similar voices and I sound a little bit like him, when I know that actually he's a much better singer than I am," he explained laughing. "He's amazing."
  • Powell told Taste of Country how he penned the song with Tritt. "We met for dinner. We live about 20 minutes apart - I tell people there's something in the water, that's why we sound alike - but we hit it off, and it was great for me to ask some questions, bounce some ideas off of him and hear some stories from him about his past and his history in country music. So we kept saying, 'Hey, we've got to write some time,' and finally when it was time for me to go into the studio, I just texted him - I think it was only a day or two before - and I said, 'Hey, I know you're super busy, but I'm gonna be in the studio if you want to drop by and say hey, or play or sing on the record, or write some music. We're gonna be here.'"

    "So he actually came over two days in a row, and we sat down and developed a couple of ideas that I had, and they ended up making the record," Powell continued. "And he actually ended up playing on the record, so it was a blast. Just to even hear him singing in the studio was amazing."

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