Back When

Album: Live Like You Were Dying (2004)
Charted: 30
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This Stan Lynch, Stephony Smith and Jeff Stevens penned song was inspired by an incident when Smith went into the kitchen to make breakfast and saw a snake on the floor. The snake crawled into a tight space between the dishwasher and cabinets and she called Jeff Stevens and Stan Lynch to come and help her figure out how to get it out.

    "We couldn't find it," she recalled to The Boot. "We go to the office, and we're sitting there, and Jeff is real country, and he kinda started making fun of me for being a sissy about it. He said, "Back when 'a hoe' was a hoe, my mama woulda just chopped his head off." And he kept right on talking. I was gasping, like, "That's what we have to write today … you know, 'Back when 'a hoe' was a hoe and 'a coke' was a Coke.'" They were like, 'Oh, yeah, here we go.'"

Comments: 1

  • None from MarsCoke has been slang for cocaine since 1902. So a coke was never just a coke during Tim McGraw's lifetime.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Zac Hanson

Zac HansonSongwriter Interviews

Zac tells the story of Hanson's massive hit "MMMbop," and talks about how brotherly bonds effect their music.

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17Songwriter Interviews

Martyn talks about producing Tina Turner, some Heaven 17 hits, and his work with the British Electric Foundation.

P.F. Sloan

P.F. SloanSongwriter Interviews

P.F. was a teenager writing hits and playing on tracks for Jan & Dean when he wrote a #1 hit that got him blackballed.

N.W.A vs. the World

N.W.A vs. the WorldSong Writing

How the American gangsta rappers made history by getting banned in the UK.

TV Theme Songs

TV Theme SongsFact or Fiction

Was a Beatles song a TV theme? And who came up with those Fresh Prince and Sopranos songs?

Tom Keifer of Cinderella

Tom Keifer of CinderellaSongwriter Interviews

Tom talks about the evolution of Cinderella's songs through their first three albums, and how he writes as a solo artist.