Story Behind the Song: Luke Bryan, ‘Up’
Luke Bryan will be the first to admit that he's often caught flack throughout his career for releasing songs that "country" enough. But with “Up,” Bryan proves the critics wrong.
The song, which comes from the deluxe edition of Bryan's 2020 album Born Here, Live Here, Die Here, is a farmer’s anthem that speaks to the heart of rural America while painting a picture of what it’s like to live there and devote your life to farming. Within the song, he tells the story of a hard-working farmer who is constantly looking "up," whether for rain to nourish the crops or for guidance from a higher power.
Below, Bryan shares the story behind “Up," in his own words.
The beauty of what the song “Up” talks about is, the first line of the song paints the picture of a farmer's life, and, luckily, in my career, I can sing a song about “One Margarita” one minute, I can sing a song about “Huntin', Fishin' [and] Lovin' Every Day," then I can do some songs that have a lot of rock influence and Southern rock, and then I can come out with a song like “Up” and talk about what a farmer's life is: waking up early in the morning when you hear that Devil's dust, praying it rains down on the Devil's dust, then rows come popping up. That's just a beautiful image, and that really tells a story of a farmer's life.
And so, I guess what I'm saying is, the fact that the song “Up” has so much rural imagery in it and tells the story of how you're looking up to God to get you through in this ... I'm really, really proud to have this song out. Sometimes I get a little — I get thrown under the bus for maybe not putting the countriest of country songs out, but certainly, on this song, if anybody listens to this song and tries to call it "not country," I think they just officially lost their mind [laughs].
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