Story Behind the Song: Devin Dawson, ‘I Got a Truck’
In 2018, Devin Dawson opened for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill during the couple's Soul2Soul Tour. After one of his sets, Dawson approached McGraw during the country superstar's warmup -- and came out of their conversation with a song.
During that conversation, McGraw told Dawson a bit about how he got his start in Nashville: specifically, thanks to Brian Williams, a banker who established SunTrust Bank's music industry division in 1988 and moved the operation to Music Row in 1990. A young McGraw asked Williams for a loan to keep his career going, and offered his truck as collateral.
Williams' bet on McGraw paid off, of course, and as McGraw recounted that interaction to Dawson, the younger country artist was shocked at how perfect a song it would make -- and that McGraw had yet to write it. Dawson couldn't stop thinking about the story, however, and wrote "I Got a Truck" later that night.
Below, Dawson shares the story of "I Got a Truck" in his own words.
The whole story started ... when we were on tour with Tim McGraw. It essentially started with a conversation I had with Tim McGraw. It was the first night of tour, and I had just gotten offstage ... and over by our dressing room, freaking Mr. Tim McGraw is just sitting there, warming up his voice and practicing a song he was going to play that night with his guitar player ... and I was just like, in my head, "This is the perfect icebreaker."
We'd hung out before ... but we hadn't really had a chance to go deep, I guess. So I just walked up and started playing guitar and singing harmonies, kind of just finding my way through the song they were playing. Afterwards ... somehow, the conversation quickly turned to, kind of, like, wisdom or advice, or just encouragement, from him -- from the superstar to the new kid on the block ...
He was just telling me about, you know, how to hold onto the right songs and how to surround yourself with the right people and how to carry yourself, and the things he did, and all of this, and it was just this really cool, like, "Holy s--t, is this happening?" moment.
He started telling me about his story about how he came to Nashville, and when he first came to Nashville, how he had just the hardest time breaking through the initial wall of the industry ... and he was talking about how, he'd done the work beforehand ... but he just needed some financial help to keep recording songs ... Labels didn't want to touch him at that point; he wasn't published.
He was telling me about this guy named Brian Williams, who, in Nashville, was a very well-respected banker ... From everyone I've talked to who knew him, they just said he was the salt of the Earth: sweetest guy, would take a shot on things that he believed in. And so, I guess Tim kinda knew that ... and he just came to Brian and pleaded his case ... Brian believed in him and took a shot ... and we all know how that ended up ...
I'm just sitting here, wide-eyed, eyes lit up, and the songwriter side of me is like, "Keep talking" ... Just something about the way he said [he told Brian], "I got a truck," it just hit me as a song title ...
I asked him once he stopped talking, "Have you written that song, man? That's your story." ... And he kind of shoved it off a little bit, like, "No, I haven't written it yet." ...
I couldn't stop thinking about [it]. After we talked, I went into the dressing room, and I was like, "I think that's a song" ... and later that night, in the back of the bus ... I just started jamming it, and it just started coming ... It just kind of happened, you know? ...
It's really rare for that inspiration to come to you in such an organic, real story that you have the opportunity to interpret for somebody into a song.
LOOK: Tim McGraw + Faith Hill's Most Adorable Pictures