That's All I Know

Album: Growing Up Is Getting Old (2009)
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Songfacts®:

  • When a songwriter is on the road, he has a lot of time to think about the mundane. When you mix those sorts of thoughts into a group of writers like Jason Michael Carroll, Paul Overstreet, and CMA Writer of the Year winner Casey Beathard, they're going to brew up something tasty. In this case, it's a rolling country tune that can't help but leave you smiling. Says Jason, "A lot of these A-list writers have been just super nice to me, and great guys. And I really appreciate that. And Casey and Paul were no different, they were great. And I remember going and writing with them, and we came up with this idea to take a whole bunch of nothings, a whole bunch of things that mean absolutely nothing by themselves, and putting them together. And when we started doing that, we realized that all of these nothings, all these little tidbits of whatever, meant everything when they were put together. Like, I know there's a sun – okay. And I know there's a moon. All right. (laughs) I mean, the lyrics to that song are so simple, but it's just basically things, what you believe in, things that are common knowledge. I think honesty's right – I think everybody would agree with that, I think lying is wrong – okay, everybody will agree with that. I think Willie and Haggard wrote some awfully good songs – whether or not you're a country music fan or not, everybody pretty much knows Willie Nelson. So, I mean, we just took all these little nothings that meant absolutely pretty much nothing on their own, and put them together, and it turns out to mean everything by the time the song's over with. And I think that's one of the coolest things about that song."
  • The great rolling melody was Jason's idea: "I had mentioned that I did not have a 6/8 kind of beat song on my first record, and I really wanted one. Partially because I always try to comply or play to my crowd, and a lot of them dance. So that's what I wanted to do with this is give them a dance song from me. So that's actually where that came from, and it's kind of cool."
  • There's a dubious line in the song that goes, "I think God drove around with the radio on in a ragged old truck just like mine." Hard core bible belt folks might take exception to giving God human traits, and when you factor in Jason's preacher father, it seems like the elements of familial discord. But Jason's dad "thinks it's great," he says. "And honestly, it's not meant to be disrespectful. It's honestly the fact that people in the country honestly always say 'we're in God's country.' And I honestly think that there's a lot of times where if you think that God lives anyway but out walking around on a farm, I mean, that's about as peaceful as it can get out in the country. Walking around on a sunny day, driving around on a farm in an old raggedy truck, I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. There's no feeling like it in the world. And that's actually where that came from." (check out our interview with Jason Michael Carroll)

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