Songfacts®:

• "What Am I Gonna Do" is a mournful ballad where Chris Stapleton contemplates a life without his lover. In the aftermath of a heartbreak that is consuming his very being, he ponders the fragments of his identity that will remain once the wounds have healed.
  
  What am I gonna do
  When I get over you?
  What am I gonna be
  Wh?n you're just a memory?
• "What Am I Gonna Do" is the opening track on Stapleton's 2023 album Higher. On a later track, "The Day I Die," he finds an answer:
  
  When there's a day I can live without you baby
  It'll be the day I die
• Stapleton wrote "What Am I Gonna Do" with fellow country superstar Miranda Lambert. They'd penned the song years previously and Lambert's foresight in stashing it away allowed him to finally lay down the recording.
  
  "She and I have written some songs over the years, and I actually called her when we were making this record. I was like, 'Hey, do you remember that song we wrote?' I could only remember half the song and I didn't have a copy," Stapleton recalled to Apple Music. "She was kind enough to go digging for it, and she found it so we could cut it."
• Stapleton sang backing vocals on several Miranda Lambert cuts over the years, including "Time to Get a Gun" and "Nobody's Fool" (which he also wrote). Lambert also stood in last-minute for Stapleton's wife, Morgane, to sing harmony when Stapleton performed "Maggie's Song" at the 2021 ACMs.
  
  Lambert joined Stapleton onstage to perform "What Am I Gonna Do" during his August 24, 2024, "All-American Road Show" stop at Minute Maid Park in Houston. It was the first time the pair sang this song live together.
• Chris Stapleton performed "What Am I Gonna Do" with his wife Morgane at the 2024 CMAs. He took home three awards: Song of the Year and Single of the Year for "White Horse," and Male Vocalist of the Year for a record-extending eighth time.