Freestyle

Album: 747 (2014)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This uptempo, rocking song finds Lady Antebellum showcasing their funky side as they sing about going "a a little wild and freestyle." Charles Kelley admitted to Country Music Is Love: "When we wrote it, [it] scared me to death, it was like, 'wow, this is very different for us.'"
  • The Lady A trio wrote this alongside songwriter Shane McAnally (Miranda Lambert's "Mama's Broken Heart"). "We had the opportunity to write with some new songwriters and really dig for outside songs that were songs we wish we'd written," Dave Haywood explained to Radio.com. "As we took them into the studio, we changed our approach and challenged ourselves to try some new things that were outside of what we'd done before."
  • Lady A's Dave Haywood had the original idea for the song. "This is one we wrote out with Shane McAnally," he told Taste of Country Nights host Sam Alex. "I had actually sent Shane a track, I knew Shane was coming out to write with us … it was a track I had kinda started at the house and sent it Shane kinda feeling like it might match a little bit with some of the stuff that he does and his songwriting style. I said, 'Hey, if you've get any ideas on this we'll see you in a couple of weeks on the road.'"

    "He came out and pulled this thing up on the bus," Haywood added. "We were out west and he started spitting out all these crazy, cool, fun off-the-wall images and just hilarious things."
  • Charles Kelley sees this as a nostalgic song. "It reminded me of those high school moments, when we did sneak vodka in our lemonade," he explained. "You go out to the lake and it was, like, you didn't know what was gonna happen."

    "It can be taken many different ways," Kelley added. "I don't think we wanted to represent a couple, or us, or our career, or anything. It was, honestly, just 'let's get out there and have fun, live life a little bit, and freestyle.' Anything goes."
  • The song was released as the second single from 747 following "Bartender." "We wanted the first two singles to be complete left turns," Charles Kelley told Rolling Stone Country. "We had songs like those before, like 'Love Don't Live Here,' but we'd kind of gotten away from it and thought it was time to reel it back and inject more fun."
  • The song's music video co-stars actor/comedian Nathan Barnatt's character Keith Apicary. He plays a socially inept fan of the Lady A trio who will stop at nothing to get to meet them in New York City. "He's been in a Flo Rida video. He does all these viral videos and he's hysterical. I mean, just commits to this character. And whenever you watch this video, he's literally at the Today Show, and he gets kicked out because he's freaking people out being there," said Hillary Scott. "Our team kind of kept it from us. We didn't really know until that night at our album release show what was really going on, 'cause this song is so quirky and different for us, so we wanted to carry that over [to the video]."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

80s Video Director Jay Dubin

80s Video Director Jay DubinSong Writing

Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.

Bob Dylan Lyric Quiz

Bob Dylan Lyric QuizMusic Quiz

Think you know your Bob Dylan lyrics? Take this quiz to find out.

Psychedelic Lyrics

Psychedelic LyricsMusic Quiz

Whoa man! Do you know which band came up with these cosmic lyrics?

Pam Tillis

Pam TillisSongwriter Interviews

The country sweetheart opines about the demands of touring and talks about writing songs with her famous father.

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Top American Idol Moments: Songs And Scandals

Top American Idol Moments: Songs And ScandalsSong Writing

Surprise exits, a catfight and some very memorable performances make our list of the most memorable Idol moments.