Songfacts®:

• David Nail wrote this airy guitar ballad for his talented bandleader father. It acts as a thank you note to his dad for the influence he has had on his life and music. Nail told Kelly Ford of America's Morning Show: "The song 'Old Man's Symphony' is really like, 'I can do this, I can do that, but I'm never gonna be great. I'm never gonna do anything more than what I hopefully hope to be, which is to make him proud.'"
• It was Nail's long-time producer, Frank Liddell, who persuaded him to record the song. He recalled to The Boot: "The day that we went in and recorded four or five songs, we had a list of about five or six. I was eating breakfast by myself that day, too... There was a calling. There was something that led me to believe that I at least should entertain the fact that we should record this song. I sent Frank a text and said, 'Hey, man, do you remember the song?' He wrote back, 'Thumbs up,' which is what I get from Frank a lot."
• This features Bear Rinehart and Bo Rinehart of NeedtoBreathe on backing vocals.