"Fix What You Didn't Break" is a song that rolls up its sleeves and wades right into the messy business of healing and redemption. Nate Smith lays bare his personal struggles, painting himself as a "ten-year train wreck" - a man who's been dragged through the emotional mud and back again.
The chorus is a raw, heartfelt thank you to Smith's lover, who somehow manages to see past all the emotional carnage left over from his previous wrecked relationships and is willing to "fix what you didn't break."
For a bit of backstory, Nate Smith was romantically involved with Reality TV star Savannah Chrisley, until things came to a halt in the spring of 2023. The breakup came down to the usual suspects: the demands of Smith's skyrocketing career clashing with Chrisley's family obligations. By the time "Fix What You Didn't Break" hit the airwaves on August 23, 2024, he was reportedly still flying solo.
Though he doesn't come right out and say it, there's a fair chance that the song pulls from Smith's own life. He describes it as a love song that "cuts deep but is still tough," which sounds a lot like a man working his way through some personal heartache.
Smith brought along the same crew that helped him craft his "
World On Fire" single: songwriters Ashley Gorley, Taylor Phillips, and his producer, Lindsay Rimes.
The song came to life on July 11, 2023, during a writing session at Rimes' home studio. It was Taylor Phillips who brought the title to the table. "He always has the titles,"
Gorley told Billboard. "It's one of his expected roles."
The title quickly inspired a storyline about a woman who acts as a savior for a man trying to piece his life back together.
Rimes gives the track a bit of that early 2000s pop-rock flavor, with a sound that's big on slightly distorted vocals and guitars that careen and surge like a river after a storm.
"I've always been a huge fan of big epic pop rock songs of the 2000's," Nate Smith said of the song. "Bands like Lifehouse, Goo Goo Dolls, 3 Doors Down were all influences in my early teens. 'Fix What You Didn't Break', to me, feels like the perfect blend of 2000's rock and heartfelt country."
"Fix What You Didn't Break" spent months on the back burner. That changed in the summer of 2024, when Rimes revisited it during a tracking session at Nashville's Blackbird Studios for Nate Smith's second album, California Gold. With extra time on the clock, Rimes decided to give the song a full-band treatment to showcase its potential. "I felt like the song wasn't getting the attention it deserved," he explained to Billboard. "We were all focused on finishing the album, but I believed this was a huge hit waiting to happen."
A five-piece band comprising drummer Evan Hutchings, bassist Mark Hill, guitarist Derek Wells, keyboardist Alex Wright, and steel guitarist Justin Schipper laid down the track. Later, Sol Philcox-Littlefield added a brash yet simple guitar solo, and Smith layered backing vocals to enrich the song's texture.
The verses carry a narrative arc: the first paints a picture of the man's brokenness, while the second introduces the woman who saw his potential and brought him back to life. One of Gorley's favorite lines is:
Showed me the past ain't a tattoo
Loved me even when you didn't have to
"That's like a spiritual moment to be like, 'Hey, you don't have to be known for your past,'" he told Billboard. "It's not with you forever. I'm gonna change that. That really goes with the theme."
