Back roads, like those found in Sam Hunt's home state of Georgia, are great fun to drive but you have to watch out for dangerous curves. It you take it slow and enjoy the ride, you'll do just fine, and once you get to the know the road, you'll want to keep driving it.
That sure is a great metaphor for a girl with an knockout body, isn't it? Sam Hunt and his co-writers Zach Crowell, Josh Osborne and Shane McAnally sure thought so, and used that concept for "Body Like A Back Road."
"Body Like A Back Road" was inspired by Sam Hunt's longtime girlfriend, Hannah Lee Fowler (they started dating in 2008 when they were students at University of Alabama-Birmingham). He wrote the song soon after they got engaged in late 2016.
"I connect music to the emotions that come from relationships, so most of the songs that I write are inspired by those circumstances, emotions, feelings, all that kind of stuff," he explained to Nash FM.
Hunt and Fowler got married on April 15, 2017, a few months after the song was released.
Sam Hunt released his debut album, Montevallo, in 2014 but took a while to release another. He put out "Body Like A Back Road" as a single in 2017 but the song didn't appear on an album until Hunt released his sophomore effort, Southside, in 2000 (produced by Zach Crowell).
Hunt said the song helped "lighten up" what was shaping up to be a "heavy" album, and the tune was a lot of fun to write.
"I've been writing songs over the past, I guess, year and a half, trying to conceptualize a new record and it kinda started taking a heavy direction, and I sat down at one point and was like, 'OK, I'm gonna lighten this up a little bit, it needs a lighter flair,'" he explained. He said the song "sort of swings, and hopefully it's easy to listen to and will put a smile on some folks' faces."
Sam Hunt had had the idea for the song stored away for some time. "I try to think of titles or lines that'll cross my mind and I'll put 'em in my phone, and this was one that I wanted to write for a while – the title 'Body Like a Back Road' – or use it as a lyric, do something with it," the Georgia native recalled. "I didn't have a melody, but one night this melody got stuck in my head and the phrase 'Body Like a Back Road' sang perfectly to it and the chorus came out pretty quick."
Having come up a melody that fitted the title, Hunt started working on the song with producer Zach Crowell and a couple of writing buddies Josh Osborne and Shane McAnally in November of 2016. The quartet penned the bulk of the tune during a trip to Charleston, where they were hoping to work without the distractions of being in Nashville. Hunt recalled:
"I wanted to write it because I thought it was a fun song, but I didn't know for sure if I wanted to put it out. I didn't want it to come across as objectifying women or be too, to lack depth and just, I don't know. So, anyway, I had some concerns, but I tried to make it fun to offset any risks of those things happening, which made writing it fun, and I think that came across in the lyric and in the way we recorded it and everything else.
When we finally finished it, it finally hit me as 'Ok. Wait a minute. Maybe I underestimated the potential of this song. I think this could be a fun song and it will connect with folks.' So, at that point, I was excited to put it out and fortunately folks have enjoyed it."
On the week after Hunt's performance at the ACM Awards, the song jumped from #12 to #6 on the Hot 100 chart, becoming the highest peaking country song on the tally since "
Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line in 2013.
Have you seen Lady A's parody of the song, "
Party in a Bathrobe"? It's about life on the tour bus, enjoyed in a bathrobe. The concept: Hillary Scott leaves bathrobes and an espresso machine as gifts for her bandmates, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, who go nuts. Sample lyrics:
Party in a bathrobe
Double cappuccino
I know this espresso like the back of my handThe song set the record for the most weeks at #1 on the Country chart, overtaking Florida Georgia Line's "
Cruise," which led for 24 weeks in 2012-'13. It was eventually dethroned by Kane Brown's "
What Ifs" after spending 34 weeks at the summit.
"Body Like A Back Road"'s record was eclipsed by Bebe Rexha featuring Florida Georgia Line's "
Meant to Be", which logged its 35th week atop the tally on August 4, 2018 and went on to spend 50 weeks at the top.
"Body Like A Back Road" won Single of the Year at the 2017 Academy of Country Music Awards Awards. Sam Hunt wasn't there to receive the prize so Dustin Lynch and Entertainment Tonight host Nancy O'Dell, who had been given the task of presenting the award, were left to accept it on his behalf.
Sam Hunt originally released "Body Like A Back Road" out of necessity because he needed something new for his 15 In A 30 tour. Though close family and friends pushed back against the lighthearted single, he didn't have any other new songs ready to go, and it was the only option.
The huge success of "Back Road" confused Hunt because it was unlike him to go against the advice of family and friends. "It's really messed my head up now because I'm like, 'OK, I don't know anything,'" he chuckled to Audacy's Katie Neal.
