Songfacts®:

• The first single from Luke Bryan's Kill the Lights album received its TV premiere on May 19, 2015 on both The Ellen DeGeneres Show and on The Voice's season finale. The song was made available at iTunes the same day. "We recorded a lot of songs, and that one stood the test of time," Bryan told USA Today. "We decided it was worth kicking the album off to. It's a big, anthemic sing-along, so it should be pretty fun."
• This was written by Dallas Davidson, Chris DeStefano and Ashley Gorley - the same team that penned Bryan's hit single, "That's My Kind of Night." "We came up with that groove and that little intro riff that you hear, and it had the right energy for what we were looking for," DeStefano recalled to Taste of Country. "Then the melody started coming, and I can't remember if it was Dallas or Ashley that ended up throwing out the term 'kick the dust up,' but we knew it right away, 'All right, that feels right, let's run with that. That's perfect.'"
• Luke Bryan opened his spring 2015 shows with this song. He's never before started sets with an unreleased tune. 'Kick The Dust Up' is also the title of the star's 2015 summer concert tour. "That's how confident we are in the song being pretty awesome," Bryan said. "We figured the socials would start lighting up and people would start learning the words. Once it hits radio, people will catch on real quick."
• Luke Bryan told reporters he had some help from younger members of his family when choosing this as the Kill the Lights lead single. "I feel so blessed to get 100 songs and play them in my truck, and when my boys [young sons Bo and Tate] want to hear that one song over and over and they're going, 'Let's tear it up, up,' I know it's right," he said
  
  "I think 'Kick the Dust Up' is a big ol' anthemic thing," Bryan added. "It kinda reminds me of 'Country Man,' way back when. It talks about being in a farm town and why would you want to go stand in line and wear black ties and pay $20 for a martini when you can go out and have a great time and kick some dust up in a field?"
• The son of a peanut farmer, Luke Bryan said the song really defines who he is. "It talks about a farm in town," he said. "It talks about we don't stand in those lines buying $10 drinks. Why do that when we can go buy a six pack and go out to a cornfield and kick some dust up? And that's what I want my fans doing."
• The three songwriters penned the lyrics with Bryan specifically in mind. "We were definitely thinking of Luke," DeStefano said. "Luke can do so many things, but I feel like as far as this particular energy, and what this kind of song has, we heard Luke on it from the get-go. You're really focused on the song itself, just writing the strongest you can for the topic, but you're also conscious of, if there's a line that comes up, Luke might not say that, and maybe we'll search for something better."
• The song was Bryan's ninth solo #1 country single, spending one week at the top of the chart. He also reached the summit as the guest vocalist on Florida Georgia Line's "This Is How We Roll."