Songfacts®:

• "Coal" is a ballad that explores themes of struggle, loneliness, and personal growth within the context of life's challenges.
• This game of life plays heavy on my heart and
  Love is tough, but loneliness is twice as hard and
  I'll carry that 'bout everywhere I go
  And they say pressure makes diamonds, how the hell am I still coal?
  
  Diamonds, those dazzling gems, aren't simply pretty rocks. They're forged in the Earth's fiery mantle where intense pressure (think 50,000 atmospheres!) and scorching heat (around 2,200°F!) squeeze and rearrange ordinary carbon atoms into a tightly packed, super-strong structure.
  
  These same carbon atoms locked up in complex, irregular arrangements, also form the black, brittle chunks we recognize as coal.
  
  This song finds Gossett frustrated because he hasn't been able to make his own transformation. He wonders why he remains coal, despite enduring the pressures of life that should make him a diamond.
• Gossett wrote this song in 2021 after a breakup. "'Coal's a very personal song. It's funny because sometimes I'll see comments saying I look like a happy guy - and I am, I'm a goofy, happy dude. But at that point in my life, about two and a half years ago, I just felt like I was stuck in a rut, where nothing was really working," he told Holler Country in 2023. "I was just throwing stuff at the wall, and nothing would stick. I started it with the main line, 'If pressure makes diamonds, how the hell am I still coal?' And then the rest of the song came in 20-25 minutes."
• When Gossett wrote "Coal" he had no plans to make music professionally. His biggest goal was playing for family gatherings at his grandfather's lake house.
  
  "Whenever holidays like Thanksgiving or Easter come around, my brother, parents, cousins, we all sit around a campfire and pass guitars around," he told Billboard in November 2023. "Mainly, me, my brother and my cousin would play songs we wrote, but everyone would sing."
• Gossett shared acoustic previews of "Coal" on TikTok in July 2023. After he self-published the full song on streaming platforms, it had a week of strong performances and entered the Country Digital Song Sales chart.
• Gossett released his first EP, No Better Time, which includes "Coal," in October 2023. The EP caught the eye of several big labels, and Gossett inked a deal with Big Loud Texas/Mercury Records, a joint venture between Miranda Lambert, Jon Randall and Big Loud Records. Thanks to Big Loud Texas' promotional backing and its use on TikTok, "Coal" entered the Hot 100 Chart dated January 20, 2024, at #89.