On The Chin

Album: Mechanical Bull (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • Caleb Followill's lyrics for this whiskey-soaked Country number were inspired by the support he's got from his buddy, JD. He explained to Billboard magazine: "We've always been each other's best friends, because that's all we had. We were picking up and moving, every town we went to we knew we weren't gonna be there too long, so we knew, 'don't make too close of friends, and don't fall in love.' Being in Nashville, I finally had a buddy outside of the band, and he was just kind of always, no matter what you need, he's there. He's just a good guy. And that song kind of came at a time when I needed a friend, and I wrote it about him. And he's scared of the water. He's scared of sharks."
  • For bassist Jared Followill, the song can be interpreted as being about the mutual support the family members have for each other. He told HitFix: "So many of our songs can be interpreted in so many different ways. At the time you can actually write something and it can be completely abstract to you at the time and then a year later, something will happen to you and you'll listen back and be like, 'Wow, that song sounds like it was written perfectly for the situation.' But that song, particularly, the way Caleb started writing those lyrics, it was for one of his friends, his buddy, JD. It's actually about that, then you hear it and it can mean so much. It can fit so many different situations. It can be for all of us together, it can be for our wives. I like songs that are open to interpretation."

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