We Were Rich

Album: Blue Roses (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • During this nostalgic tune, Runaway June recall their time growing up when life was so much simpler.

    Once a year we'd drive out to the nearest KOA
    And we'd light a fire
    Stare at the stars
    And play flashlight tag with the people in the tent there next to ours


    The trio recall how despite not having much money they still enjoyed themselves, so they thought themselves to be rich.
  • Nashville songwriters Ross Copperman, Nicolle Galyon and Ashley Gorley penned the tune. Runaway June's Naomi Cooke recalled to The Boot when they heard the demo it immediately felt like their childhood homes. "When that song got played, it was towards the end of the day, and there was a line that came in," she recalled. "I have 10 brothers and sisters - I'm from a big, big family - and we were really poor growing up. We only had one bathroom. And there's a line that says, 'One bathroom sink. We all took turns.'"

    Cooke added that she started crying and with tears pouring from her eyes said they've got to record the song. The other two band members agreed.
  • Runaway June dropped an updated version of "We Were Rich" on June 29, 2020 as the third single from Blue Roses. The release includes new band member Natalie Stovall, who replaced Hannah Mulholland the previous month.
  • Natalie Stovell is also a fiddle player and she put her instrumental skills to good use on the updated version. "To me, I could hear fiddle on it the second that I heard the song. So it didn't feel forced," she told Taste of Couutry. "And I knew it didn't need much, but I wanted to add that texture... and the crazy thing was, there was room for it."
  • The song's music video opens with a shot of Natalie Stovall's childhood home in Columbia, Tennessee. It is followed by clips of small-town life, such as two children running through a sprinkler or a little league game emphasizing the idea that wealth doesn't necessarily mean lots of cash.

    "The first time I saw our music video I just started sobbing like a baby!" Stovall recalled. "It opens on the house I grew up in, features my parents and sweeps through intensely nostalgic moments, people and places from my childhood and hometown."

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