Songfacts®:

• Miranda Lambert penned this empowering anthem to inner strength with Natalie Hemby, who's been writing with Lambert since 2009's Revolution, and Taylor Swift hitmaker Liz Rose ("Teardrops on My Guitar").
• The song originated from a late-night text message sent by Lambert to Hemby. "One time, [Lambert] sent me a text in the middle of the night," Hemby recalled to American Songwriter. "It said, 'like fireflies in the rain.' I think she was watching a storm. I texted back, 'I'm the keeper of the flame.'"
  
  Lambert and Hemby later hashed out the rest of the song with the help of Rose.
• The track was written during the very public dissolution of Lambert's marriage to Blake Shelton. During the song Lambert determines to move forward as she reflects on her responsibilities as:
  
  The keeper of the flame
  The teller of the story
  The keeper of the flame
  For the ones that came before me
  
  Lambert finds courage by looking back at the craft and bravery of her songwriting forerunners.
• "Keeper of the Flame" was the name of Lambert's 2016 headlining tour.