Growing Up Like That

Album: Take a Back Road (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • The inspiration for this cut came from Atkins telling his writing colleagues about his first basketball goal, which was made from an old creosote pole out of the barn. He was ten at the time and he recalled to The Boot: "I dribbled that ball 'til the grass was brown and then there was nothing but dirt. That's where I learned to shoot baskets."

    Atkins added that after telling the story, co-writer Ben Hayslip commented, "you want to give your kids everything you can, things that we didn't have when we were kids, but in doing so the one thing we don't give them is the things that made us who we are." Atkins and his colleagues, "started talking about those kinds of things," and this song was the result.

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