Songfacts®:

• This reflective piece is the fourth single from Zac Brown Band's first major-label studio album, The Foundation. The band's lead singer Zac Brown penned the song with his usual songwriting partner, Wyatt Durrette.
• The song's lyric is about the shared custody of a child. The narrator is a divorced father who still loves his son and ponders about the situation on his long fortnightly drive down Highway 20 to see him.
• Highway 20 is a major east–west Interstate road in the southeastern United States that runs 1,535 miles (2,470 km) between Texas and South Carolina.
• When this song drove from #11 to #9 on the Country chart, the Zac Brown Band became the first group to send four songs from a debut album into the top 10 since Rascal Flatts netted their fourth top 10 hit in 2002.
• This was the third single taken from The Foundation to top Country Songs. The previous major label debut album to yield at least three #1s on the Country chart was Carrie Underwood's 2005 long player, Some Hearts.
• This was the second song with a highway number in its title to reach #1 on the Country chart. The previous one was "Highway 40 Blues" by Ricky Skaggs, which travelled to the peak position on the week ending July 9, 1983.
• Wyatt Durrette told The Boot about the inspiration for this song: "'Highway 20 Ride' is a song I started writing when I was probably a year into making the drive from Atlanta to Augusta, Georgia [to see my son]. I had gone through a divorce. She moved back to where she was from in South Carolina, and the halfway point was Augusta. I was bartending and took every other weekend off to spend time with him. It was a very painful time in my life, not having enough time together and having to bring him back. I worried about how he will perceive me as a father. Am I doing the right thing? I was going through all the things everybody goes through in that situation.
  
  That song started on Interstate 20 in Georgia. I brought [what I had started] to Zac. He was there as a friend. He went through it with me on my end. He is also a son of the same situation - a divorce - with his father. He saw the other side, so it wasn't a hard song for him to help me write. He sings it with a lot of passion. He was there as a child, and he was there when I was going through it.
  
  I now refer 'Highway 20 Ride' as a love song to my kid to let him know I'll always be there no matter how far we travel. I just try to give him love and respect, and let him know he is loved. No matter what [his mother and I] are both there because we care about him. He didn't do anything to deserve it. Through love, communication and respect for each other, it can be okay."