Songfacts®:

• In the summer of 2020, amid the challenges of the pandemic, Margo Price and her husband and musical partner Jeremy Ivey spent six days in South Carolina taking hallucinogenic mushrooms and passionately penning the album that would eventually become Strays. This was one of the very first songs that flowed out the next day after they came down from their mushroom trip.
• Recorded in Topanga Canyon, the song was an exciting step forward for Price, who wrote it with Jeremy Ivey and released it as the first single from Strays on August 25, 2022. "'Been To The Mountain' is part one of an introspective trip into our subconscious," said Price. "It is the perfect continuation of my search for freedom in my art and freedom in the modern age."
• "Been To The Mountain" is a cry of fury from someone who has struggled for everything in her life and still isn't sure she has much to show for it aside from her undying defiance. Halfway through, the song breaks down into a Pat Benatar-esque spoken-word rant.
  
  Well, I've been called every name in the book, honey
  Go on, take your best shot
  Take your best shot, TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT!
  
  Initially, Price couldn't quite muster the outrage to say those lines. "That part of the song really needed to be angry and frightened," Ivey told Uncut magazine. "But we were all too mellow. I'd heard the story about Etta James, how you had to get her really pissed off to get a good take out of her."
  
  So, Ivey leaned in and whispered something into his wife's ear. She recoiled and started screaming at him. "That was the take," Price said. "He wanted to get me fried up and mad as hell, and he knew the one thing to say."
  
  The couple have sworn each other to secrecy about what he whispered to her. "It's just between the two of us," Ivey promised. "I'm never going to tell anyone else, but it was very specific. It would have been incredibly cruel if I'd actually intended it. It's also kind of fun, because I got off the hook. After 18 years of being with her, there aren't many times when I can just say something mean and get away with it."
• Price co-produced the song with Jonathan Wilson, who has previously worked with Angel Olsen and Father John Misty. Price also played the shaker, tambourine, and cowbell. The other musicians are:
  
  Micah Hulscher: piano, synthesizer, harpsichord, organ
  Jamie Davis: electric guitar
  Alex Munoz: electric guitar
  Kevin Black: bass
  Dillon Napier: drums