Songfacts®:

• A bucket list is a list of activities a person puts together that they want to do before dying (kicking the bucket). Here, Mitchell Tenpenny is singing about living by his "bucket list" so he won't pass away with any regrets. "You never know how long you have on Earth," he told Apple Music, "so you need to try and live it to the fullest."
• A bucket list normally comprises places you want to visit, and things you want to learn (a new language, scuba diving) and achieve (get a degree, write a book). So what is on Mitchell Tenpenny's bucket list? He sings here of loving a little more and dreaming a little deeper, so he doesn't have to ask himself "What if" at the end of his life.
• Tenpenny wrote "Bucket List" with Chris DeStefano and Laura Veltz back in 2019, and released it on January 4, 2021. He dropped the song at the beginning of the new year, as 2020 "was completely unexpected and a lot of people lost so much."
  
  Tenpenny added that though the track doesn't speak to the coronavirus pandemic per se, he wants to encourage fans to make every day count. "My hope is that it inspires people to make goals and try to cross them off as fast as possible," he said.
• The music video finds Tenpenny crossing off a few of his personal bucket list items while touring Arizona. It shows him visiting Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and Lake Powell/Antelope Canyon.
• Want another song about a bucket list? Check out Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado's 2012 track of that title where she reflects "on personal relationships and life goals."
• Tenpenny told People that "Bucket List" is inspired by his late father's advice about living life to the fullest. "That's what my dad always taught me and my brother growing up, that life is short, so you just always have to go for it," the singer said. "I have noticed that when someone gives you that courage to go for it, that's when you have the best chance of success."
• The singer lost his father, Mitchell James Tenpenny Jr., in 2014 after a battle with cancer. He previously recorded "Walk Like Him" in tribute to his dad for his sophomore album. Tenpenny told People that when he started writing his third record, he knew he "wanted another song that not only talked about loss, but also about living in the moment."