Songfacts®:

• In the title track of Clint Black's 1989 debut album, Killin' Time, the country singer tries to drown the memory of his ex-girlfriend in liquor but realizes he'll likely spend the rest of his life - and afterlife - "gettin' loose and killin' time" before he forgets about her. He sings:
  
  This killin' time is killin' me
  Drinking myself blind thinkin' I won't see
  That if I cross that line and they bury me
  Well, I just might find I'll be killin' time for eternity.
  
  Behind the scenes, Black was anxious to get his album out into the world and was frustrated by how long the process was taking. He was venting to his guitarist and co-writer, Hayden Nicholas, when the idea for the song was born. "We were about halfway through the album production, and Hayden and I were drivin' off to some gig north of town," Black recalled in The Billboard Book of #1 Country Hits. "We were always talkin' about, 'There's a lot goin' on, but there's not a lot goin' on around here ... yet.' We had a lot of time on our hands, and I said, 'Yeah, this killin' time is killin' me.' We looked at each other, our eyes got real big, and we knew we had a hook."
• With Killin' Time, Black made history as the first country artist to have their first four singles reach #1 on the Country chart. "A Better Man" was the lead single, followed by "Killin' Time," "Nobody's Home," and "Walkin' Away." The fifth single, "Nothing's News," went to #3 but did hit #1 in Canada, where the other songs were also chart-topping hits. By the end of the '90s he notched nine more #1 hits on the US Country chart.
• Most up-and-coming country artists at the time would employ seasoned session musicians and songwriters, especially for their debut album, but Black used his own road band and wrote all of the tracks on the album by himself or with Nicholas (his drummer Dick Gay also has a credit on "Walkin' Away"). It proved to be a wise decision as Killin' Time went to #1 on the US Country Albums Chart.
• The album earned Black a Grammy nomination for Best Male Country Vocal Performance at the 1990 ceremony, where "A Better Man" was also considered for Best Country Song. Lyle Lovett's Lyle Lovett And His Large Band and Rodney Crowell's "After All This Time" were the respective winners.
• Black named his 2026 memoir, Killin' Time: My Life and Music, after this song. Although the heartache lyrics on the album were inspired by a real-life relationship, Black found happiness shortly after its release when he began dating his future wife, actress/singer Lisa Hartman, in 1990. The book covers his rise to fame and the couple's romance, including their painful struggles with fertility before welcoming their daughter, Lily, in 2001.
• In the music video, directed by Bill Young, Black and his band perform the tune at My Place, a real-life bar (now known as the Saddleback Saloon) in Sealy, Texas. The original owner, Minnie, appears in the clip tending the bar and playfully interacting with the singer, who asks her for a kiss. Two of his brothers, Brian and Kevin Black, make cameo appearances. Brian, wearing a tan cowboy hat, dances with a blonde woman around the 2:50 mark, and Kevin plays an older version of Black, still trying to drown his sorrows.