Hell Right

Album: Fully Loaded: God's Country (2019)
Charted: 99
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Songfacts®:

  • This rowdy, rap-influenced party song is a collaboration between Blake Shelton and his Friends and Heroes tour mate Trace Adkins. The longtime friends previously teamed for Shelton's 2009 #1 single "Hillbilly Bone."
  • The song finds Shelton and Adkins giving us some lessons in how to be a hell raiser.

    You ain't done nothin' if you did it halfway
    If you're gonna raise hell, then you better damn raise hell right
    Hell right


    Shelton explained: "This song is about taking things to the max. You can raise hell or you can raise hell right. It's about cutting loose and having fun the right way."
  • "Hell Right" was written by Hardy, who also helped craft Shelton's #1 hit "God's Country," plus David Garcia and Brett Tyler. Shelton explained as soon as heard the track, it cut him in the soul. "I spend a lot of time in Los Angeles these days," he said, "but when I hear songs like this on the radio, I am immediately thinking about being back home and what I'd be doing if I was there."
  • One of the lyrics raised some eyebrows with an apparent poke at Lil Nas X's country-flavored rap hit "Old Town Road."

    Then the girl from the small town took off the "Old Town"
    Put on a little Hank Jr.


    Hardy denied to The Boot that he and co-writers David Garcia and Brett Tyler were taking a shot at Lil Nas X's hit tune. He insisted they were simply paying homage to Hank Jr. and it just happened that "Old Town Road" was being played to death on the radio at the time. "You coulda said 'took off the' whoever," he said.
  • Shelton debuted the track at Gillette Stadium on August 17, 2019, when he was an opening act for George Strait's show, which took place during a rain storm. Shelton performed the song toward the end of his set.
  • Hardy, David Garcia and Brett Tyler wrote "Hell Right" on May 29, 2019. Within a week, Shelton had picked up the song; by August 16, 2019, he'd recorded and released the track.

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