What better way to celebrate a weekend of adoration than with two men who have the art of penning love songs perfected?
Country duo Dan + Shay just dropped their latest single, "Glad You Exist," at the beginning of the month and it's been our theme song for Valentine's Day 2021 ever since. Speaking with RADIO.COM's John & Tammy at KSON in San Diego, the pair admits it was indeed no coincidence.
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"It's perfect, there are no accidents here," says Dan Smyers. "It's great timing, but man, it's been really cool... That one's always been close to our hearts. With everything happening in the world, I feel like the song is kind of taking on a new meaning."
"You know, like people not being able to be together in person," Dan explained. "We're seeing so many incredible stories on social media of people... you know the military homecomings, babies, engagements... all kinds of stuff."
Dan also says, you'll be happy to know, that they're seeing every one of your posts. "It's been super inspiring for us to watch that stuff," he admits. "We've just been refreshing our feed non-stop, all day everyday watching it. To watch the fans tell the story on this one is kind of different than anything we've ever done before."
John & Tammy played for Dan and Shay some of the touching listener shout-outs they received from fans as dedications to parents, spouses, children, and dear friends. "That was the coolest thing I've ever heard in my whole life," said Shay Mooney. "I'm not gonna lie, I might have teared up a little bit, I was unprepared for that."
"Yeah, I've got goosebumps after that," Dan agreed. "Honestly, I'm gonna need to get a copy of that... I'm emotional... I'm speechless." (Was that a perfect segue into a song, or what?)
While both Dan and Shay have expressed their frustrations with the events of 2020 just like the rest of us, the pair have managed to stay positive and uplifting throughout the giant pause in live entertainment.
"Obviously, this time has been difficult for everybody, not just us... But it really has been a learning curve I guess for all of us," says Shay. "There's a lot of blessings in disguise. There's been a lot of moments that we've been able to have through all this that otherwise, we would not have gotten to get. You know, I had a new baby right before the pandemic. Being able to be home with him was incredible, and Dan and I were working on our own lives."
'We've learned through all of this that we can't just sit around and kind of take it and be like, 'alright everything is horrible,'" he continued. "We have to be able to feel hope and be hope to the world and I feel like this song, 'Glad You Exist,' was not only important for our fans to hear and the people of the world to hear, but it was really important for us to hear a message like this."
"We get to do something really, really cool and we're very blessed to be in this position that we get to make music for a living and we're so glad we get to do that."
Listen to the full interview with Dan + Shay above to hear some of their "rejected candy heart" options, and stay tuned for even more exclusive conversations with your favorite artists on RADIO.COM.
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