Album: Southernality (2015)
Charted: 47
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • A Thousand Horses was founded in 2010 in Nashville by longtime friends, vocalist Michael Hobby and lead guitarist Bill Satcher (both natives of Newberry, South Carolina), along with rhythm guitarist Zach Brown and bassist Graham DeLoach. This ballad is their debut release.
  • The song finds Hobby comparing his desire for his lover to the addictiveness of tobacco. They recorded the track along with the rest of their debut album, Southernality, at Zac Brown's studio in Nashville during September 2014.
  • This was one of the last songs written for the Southernality album. "I wrote it two days before we went in and cut," Hobby recalled to The Boot. "I got the demo that night, and I was really excited about it, so I sent it to all the guys. The next day they were like, 'We need to put this song on the record,' because it felt like a special song."

    "You never have any expectations of a song, how well it will do," he added. "But, we just all liked it. We wanted to play it; we wanted to cut it."
  • This was the first debut single by a group to top the Billboard Country Airplay chart in the 2010s. (The last act to do so was Zac Brown Band with their debut single "Chicken Fried" in 2008).

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The Kingdom

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The KingdomSongwriter Interviews

The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")Songwriter Interviews

Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The Remasters

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The RemastersSong Writing

Brian has unearthed outtakes by Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other artists for reissues. Here's how he does it.

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.

British Invasion

British InvasionFact or Fiction

Go beyond The Beatles to see what you know about the British Invasion.

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.