Songfacts®:

• This love song was written by Hillary Lindsey, Tony Lane and Tom Douglas. Even though he didn't pen it, Bryan recorded the delicate ballad with his wife, Caroline, in mind. It was the first tune the Nashville star had ever recorded for her, and he was anxious when he shared it. "I played it for my wife and I had butterflies, her hearing it for the first time," Bryan told Entertainment Tonight, "because it was my attempt through song telling her how much she means to me."
• Co-songwriter Hillary Lindsey added harmonies to the track.
• Luke Bryan gravitated to this song as he saw this as a way a guy like him, who is maybe not so good talking about his emotions, can tell his girl how he feels about her.
  
  "The second I heard it I told myself, 'Well, this is a really manly, masculine way to tell your wife and tell people you love them. It's not cheesy, it's like a wedding song,'" he recalled. "Two years ago if you'd have told me I'd be sitting here going, 'Well, this song could be a big wedding song for a lot of people,' I would've looked at you like you had four heads."
  
  Bryan added that he sees similarities between this and another of his classic numbers, which also expresses difficult emotions: "'Drink a Beer' was a sad song for me," he said. "It was a sad song, but it was tough, and it said what I wanted to say in the right way, and so does 'To the Moon and Back.' It's perfectly done, and I think a man's man could put that song in and go, 'Baby, this is a song that I want you to hear, and it makes me think about us,' and I think that's the cool thing about 'To the Moon and Back.'"