Songfacts®:

• "If You Go Down (I'm Goin' Down Too)" is a song about a supportive friendship. Kelsea Ballerini promises her best pal that whatever trouble she gets into, she'll ride or die through the chaos with her.
• "If You Go Down" was the last song Ballerini wrote for Subject To Change. The singer, together with her co-producers Julian Bunetta and Shane McAnally, had already cut most of the tracks. They booked in one last writing day in case there was anything left in the tank, and after reviewing the topics that might be absent from the record, Ballerini noted there was nothing that honored her friendships. "Friends was a huge theme on my last record - the two lyrics that popped up the most on that Kelsea record were 'home' and 'friends,'" she recounted to Billboard. "And so it was like I was doing a disservice to a pillar in my life to not have a song that carried that through."
  
  Ballerini, Bunetta and McAnally started talking about Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon driving off the cliff in Thelma & Louise, and Marianne and Wanda in The Chicks murder ballad "Goodbye Earl."
  
  "These really beautiful best-friend stories that had a tinge of murder attached," Ballerini recalled.
  
  Following their discussion, the three crafted an outlaw anthem where Ballerini assures her girlfriend, "If it all blows up and we end up on the news. If you go down, I'm goin' down too."
• Ballerini spent a couple of hours laying down her vocal. She wanted to give it a performance element, ensuring that the listener wouldn't take the criminal part of the storyline seriously. Ballerini also wanted to give props to the Crime Junkie podcast. "I was like, 'I want there to be this witty Thelma & Louise anthem where, when people come to my show with their girl gang, they can scream it with each other, and I can honor my friends,'" she said. "And I can also have a tinge of, 'Oh, she listens to the Crime Junkie.'"
• Ballerini's label, Black River, released "If You Go Down (I'm Goin' Down Too)" as the second single from Subject To Change on December 5, 2022. Its camaraderie theme mirrored Ballerini's personal life at a time when friends were vital following the breakdown of her marriage. "Sometimes you put out a single because you think that it's the most radio-friendly, and sometimes you put out a single because it's actually reflective of where you're at in your life," she said. "And then sometimes, both things can be true."