"I Ain't Worried" is a carefree number where OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder outlines his positive mindset. Because he keeps busy, Tedder doesn't get ground down by life's problems. Instead, he takes them in and lets them go.
Avery Bright's cheery whistling augments the song's upbeat feel. The violinist previously played on OneRepublic's
Oh My My album, including the tracks "A.I." and "Better."
During the song's production process, Tedder and the other producers noticed a similarity between the whistling melody of "I Ain't Worried" and the one on Peter Bjorn and John's 2006 song "
Young Folks." They arranged a deal with the Swedish band, adding them to the songwriting credits.
OneRepublic recorded "I Ain't Worried" for Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to Top Gun in which Tom Cruise reprises his role as Pete Mitchell. Interscope released it on May 13, 2022 as the second single off the soundtrack.
Ryan Tedder and OneRepublic bassist Brent Kutzle co-wrote "I Ain't Worried" with Tyler Spry. Songwriter and producer Tyler Spry contributed to nine tracks on OneRepublic's 2021
Human album, including "
Rescue Me," "
Better Days," and "
Run."
The writers of "Young Folks" - Björn Yttling, Peter Morén and John Eriksson - also get credited.
The three songwriters co-produced the track with Simon Oscroft. New Zealand-raised Simon Oscroft started his career as guitarist of the New Zealand rock band Midnight Youth. He has since written and produced for the girl group The Aces.
The Isaac Rentz-directed video cuts between shots of OneRepublic performing the song and clips from the movie.
Ryan Tedder's son, Copeland, supplied backing vocals.
The idea for the song started during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A friend of Tedder's who runs the music department at Paramount Pictures invited him to take part in the soundtrack of Top Gun: Maverick. They needed an original song specifically for the beach scene, and Tom Cruise had already turned down about 30 other tunes.
Tedder's Paramount buddy asked him if he'd be willing to Zoom with Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer, which the OneRepublic readily agreed to. "Tom described to me what he wanted to feel in the scene, how he wanted the music to make him feel," Tedder recalled on Smallzy's Surgery. "And then he asked me what I heard. And I told him, I used as much you know, adjectives as I could to describe how a song should sound. And he said, Yeah, this is exactly what I'm feeling. So, man, go do it. I can't wait."
Tedder and Brent Kutzle then wrote the song that next morning. Speaking during On Air with Ryan Seacrest, he said they penned it "with the characters in mind, relaxing and having fun in the scene for the first time in those two hours of film."
Tedder instantly came up with the whistle, and the rest of the song flowed. "I wish every song that we've ever done was this easy," he told Smallzy. "This was in the history of One Republic, I think I've ever done two songs that were this easy ever. This being one of like we wrote, this is 45 minutes. I wrote the song in 45 minutes and the only the only other time that happened for with this band was '
Stop And Stare' like ages ago."
This is the second OneRepublic Hot 100 Top 10 hit to feature whistling. 2010's "
Good Life" also includes the human instrument.
"I Ain't Worried" topped the charts in several countries, including Belgium, Iceland, and New Zealand.
"I Ain't Worried" was the second of two singles released from
Top Gun: Maverick. It peaked at #6 on the Hot 100, a much bigger pop hit than the preceding single, Lady Gaga's "
Hold My Hand," which stalled at #49. Despite this, Oscar voters shortlisted Gaga's song for the 2023 Academy Awards but not OneRepublic's.
