Good Ol' Boys Like Us

Album: Original Good Ol' Boy (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • Discovered in the spring of 2010 on YouTube by noted producer Jeremy Stover, JJ Lawhorn signed with Average Joes Entertainment in 2011 and released his debut album, Original Good Ol' Boy two years later. This is the second single to be released from the set. It was made available on iTunes on February 18, 2014.
  • This self-penned song stresses the value of never-ending friendships and was the result of a tragic event that hit close to home for the rural Virginian. "'Good Ol' Boys Like Us' is a true story inspired by the passing of a friend that devastated my hometown community a few years back," Lawhorn explained.

    Four months after the release of the Original Good Ol' Boy album in July 2013, a good friend of Lawhorn's died in a motorcycle accident. "While it has always been special to me, the tune took on a new meaning after my best friend and former drummer died in a tragic motorcycle accident two months ago," Lawhorn said when announcing the song's single release. "There isn't another song that I've ever written that is closer to my heart. Its message is one of hope; a reminder that we are never alone even after our loved ones are gone."
  • Lawhorn was inspired to write the song after seeing how everybody came together to celebrate his friend's life after he'd passed away. "I wanted to write something that inspired people just to think about, hey, even though this person's gone, they're still with us," he told The Boot. "They're still watching over us. They're like guardian angels."
  • Lawhorn knew that the video for the song needed a special approach. "I just told [the record company], 'I'm gonna go shoot this video in my hometown, and I'm gonna go to the places that we used to go, and I'm gonna film things that we used to see and do.' Me and the producer talked for a long time about just trying to make everything as authentic as possible," he said.

    "It's freaky to me to watch it, because I've actually got my best friend's little brother playing him as a kid, and his little buddy playing me as a kid," Lawhorn added. "Throughout the video, you see these kids running around shooting BB guns and whatever, just doing all these different things, carving stuff out of trees — things that we used to do, and it shows me remembering it all."

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