Brett Young’s newest album, Across The Sheets, has had an entire week to shine bright after releasing last Friday. While fans continue to soak up the new music, there’s one very familiar song on the project that has captured a lot of attention.
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Included on the project is Brett’s take on Tim McGraw’s 1994 single, “Don’t Take The Girl,” a tune the 42-year-old credits to introducing him to he magic of music, and more specifically, Country.
“In 1994, in Southern California, everyone was listening to Blink 182 and [The] Offspring and Green Day on a transistor radio on the beach in Huntington somewhere and I don’t have anything against that kind of music, but I haven’t cared for it,” Brett said if his days growing up in the Golden state.
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“There was one [Country] station in Southern California at the time [I was growing up] and, ‘Don’t Take The Girl,’ came on,” Young said, recalling he always blasted Country radio while riding in the car just to annoy his older sister. “I’m a young kid and I don’t especially like Country music either, but this song… I remember this thing registered in my head, way back then of, ‘that’s a 15 year-long story in four minutes. How?’ It’s perfect, it’s literally perfect. It catapulted me into when Ty Herdon released ‘What Mattered Most,’ and Shenandoah and it just started started finding 90s Country and I fell in love with it.”
With the 30-year anniversary of the songs release coming up next year, Young wanted to include it on his fourth studio album, but admits he struggled to commit as he feared he could never get it as right as McGraw did. “I realized when we were making this record, I wanted to do something different, and next year, ‘Don’t Take The Girl,’ it’ll be the 30th anniversary of the release of that song, and I was like, this is the time to do it,” he said.
“I was terrified,” Young said of including the song on Across The Sheets. “I sing my own songs all the time, but Tim McGraw did it perfect. So, the idea that you could potentially make a mockery of something that was perfect.”
Young put his fears aside and worked with the same producer McGraw did for the song, Dan Huff, who Brett says, “made sure that it turned out good.”
“I’m really proud of it,” he said of his version while also saying “I love this whole record, so it’s kind of impossible to cherry-pick favorites.”
Hear more about Brett’s new album, including the re-record from a previous project he included, plus info on his family, tour with Sam Hunt and more by checking out his entire conversation with Brett Young above.
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