Songfacts®:

• This heartfelt ballad finds Darius Rucker asking someone to love him in spite of his faults. The song was written by Ross Copperman, Jon Nite and Shane McAnally. "I always tell people, the first time I heard [the Black Crowes'] 'She Talks To Angels,' those lyrics did something to me. I probably requested that song eight times at different bars in Columbia, South Carolina, before going home, putting on Bonnie Raitt's Home Plate, and trying to write 'She Talks To Angels" for Bonnie Raitt. 'Let Her Cry' just poured out," Rucker said. "For me, 'If I Told You,' inspired me like 'Angels' as it's not a song I wrote, but as a songwriter I would not change a line as it moves me to want to not only sing along but also as a songwriter it inspires a new perspective."
• The song was released as the lead single from Rucker's fifth solo country album, which is his inaugural project with producer Ross Copperman. It also marks the first time Rucker has worked with Copperman's co-writers Jon Nite and Shane McAnally. "What I love about each album is the opportunity to expand on what we've done in the past—to push myself and the band creatively, vocally and lyrically," said Rucker. "At the end of the day, I'm a fan of great stories and great songs. With 'Wagon Wheel' I loved the visual it painted and it's a song I can truly say I look forward to performing every night. With 'If I Told You,' I can't wait to share in that vulnerability with the fans from the stage night-after-night."
• The song's music video was shot at the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles, where so many musical greats have laid down tunes in the past.
  
  "I've never been on the roof of the Capitol building, and that was just so cool," recalled Rucker to The Boot. "Being in that studio and standing where Sinatra stood, making all those great records, and seeing all the pictures on the wall of the great artists that have come through there."
• What if I told you about my little nothing town
  The two room house where I came from
  The man that I got my name from
  I don't even know where he is now
  
  Darius Rucker was raised by his single mother, Carolyn, with his three sisters and two brothers. This song addresses growing up without a father.
  
  Rucker told Radio.com: "The old joke about country music used to be 'My wife left me and took my dog,' but it's not really like that anymore. Country music's so about the nuclear family and living the southern lifestyle and everything. And that was another thing that attracted me to this song. It was about real life. And that, for me, was like, 'Man, I want people to hear this song.' That's why I cut it. I want people to hear it. It's one of those songs that I think a lot of people will relate to, and they do. I get so many messages about, 'Man, this is my life.' I go 'Yeah, it's mine too.'"
• Shane McAnally recalled to The Boot the songwriting session that produced this cut:
  
  "The idea was just tossed around: "If you knew everything about me, and if I really told you who I was, would you still love me?" We all thought that was a really cool idea for a song.
  
  It's personal to all of us, and it just felt like it just rolled. I don't think there was some big story about someone getting hung up on different things. We just kind of did it. There's definitely pieces of all of us in there."