Backwoods

Album: Justin Moore (2009)
Charted: 69
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Moore wrote this song with Jamie Paulin and producer Jeremy Stover. He recalled to Great American Country: "We were in Jeremy's house and we were discussing my keyboard player, who grew up in Eastern Kentucky. My guitar player also grew up in Eastern Kentucky. We've become really good buddies. I went up to where he's from, Pike County, Kentucky. I thought I grew up in the backwoods! I found out that they grew up in a holler called Greasy Creek. I came back and said, 'Y'all would not even believe how backwoods this is.' One of us just started playing the melody, the guitar stuff on it, and Jeremy just started rambling, 'Rifle on my gun rack, hanging in my back glass.' That was one of those songs that we wrote in 30 or 40 minutes. We wrote it and were like, 'It could be cool,' and when we demoed it, we loved it. It's a fun song to play live."
  • This was released as the third single from Moore's self-titled debut album.
  • Moore told AOL's The Boot about the song's lyrical content: "I grew up in a little bitty town in Arkansas, back in the sticks. I've got a guitar player from Pike County, Kentucky - it's actually called Greasy Creek where he's from! I went up there, and he and I played a couple of gigs together up there. I came back home and called my producer. I said, 'Dude, I grew up out in the woods, but you wouldn't believe how backwoods this place is!' It was a song we wrote in about 20 minutes. One of us just started rambling, and the other one started playing the groove of it. Some songs you write and know it's a really good song, then some of them you get into the studio and it comes to life then. This was one of those songs. I liked it when I wrote it, but when we got done doing it in the studio, we both went, 'Man, this has got to go on the album!'"
  • Moore told The Boot about the song's music promo: "It was our first night shoot. It was a fun shoot. I was glad to have my band in the video. Probably my favorite thing about it is my guitar. They made me a camouflage guitar for the video. It's the simple things in life that make me happy!"
  • A copyright infringement lawsuit was filed by Tennessee songwriter Bobby Carmichael and Louisiana fiddler Britton Curry against Moore and his record company, Big Machine Label Group, in August 2012. The suit claimed that "Backwoods" sounds strikingly similar to a song they wrote in 2003. The pair alleged that when they tried selling their tune in Nashville in 2005, Jamie Paulin "heard and/or secured the song."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Elton John

Elton JohnFact or Fiction

Does he have beef with Gaga? Is he Sean Lennon's godfather? See if you can tell fact from fiction in the Elton John edition.

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.

Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee JonesSongwriter Interviews

Rickie Lee Jones on songwriting, social media, and how she's handling Trump.

Jesus Christ Superstar: Ted Neeley Tells the Inside Story

Jesus Christ Superstar: Ted Neeley Tells the Inside StorySong Writing

The in-depth discussion about the making of Jesus Christ Superstar with Ted Neeley, who played Jesus in the 1973 film.

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions Answered

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions AnsweredSong Writing

10 Questions for the author of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces

Jimmy Webb

Jimmy WebbSongwriter Interviews

Webb talks about his classic songs "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman" and "MacArthur Park."