Chris Lane’s “I Don’t Know About You”
feted at No. 1 party
By Preshias Harris for Country Music News International Magazine & Radio Show
“What’s your name, what’s your sign,
what’s your birthday? / What’s your wrist tattoo bible verse say? / Tell me
this, do you kiss on the first date? / Don’t hold anything back.” – lyrics from
“I Don’t Know About You”– lyrics from “I Don’t
Know About You”
It took 45 weeks to climb to the top of
Billboard’s Country Airplay charts, but Chris Lane’s “I Don’t Know About You”
finally made it to No. 1 on 01 October, 2019.
On Tuesday, 28 January, Chris celebrated that achievement with the
song’s writers at a Number One party in Nashville, hosted by the performing
rights organizations, BMI and ASCAP.
Receiving plaques to mark the occasion were
songwriters Ashley Gorley, Michael Hardy, Hunter Phelps and Jameson
Rodgers. The event was extra special for
Phelps and Rodgers as “I Don’t Know About You” marked the first No. 1 for both
songwriters. For Ashley, it was his forty-fourth No. 1. (To make things more
complicated, last week Ashley celebrated his forty-fifth No. 1 for co-writing
“Good Vibes” for Chris Janson, and since then has already scored his
forty-sixth and forty-seventh chart-topper!)
“I Don’t Know About You” really struck a
chord with listeners as it is built around typical questions that a guy will
ask a girl when they first meet, hoping for a date.
During the media roundtable before the
presentation Lane and the songwriters talked about the song. “Lyrically, it had
really cool lines in it,” said Lane. “For whatever reason, people just
gravitated towards that. And even fans. I mean, a line as simple as, ‘Girl I
know your favorite beer because you told me and I bought it.’ I’ve watched
people scream that line! Obviously with the ‘wrist tattoo’ line. I’ve had
people come up to me in the grocery store and say, ‘I love your bible verse
tattoo song.’ That’s what they refer to it as, they don’t call it by its name!
People took to it because of really great lines and a great melody as well.”
Michael Hardy nodded in agreement. “I think
‘bible verse’ for sure,” he said. “I’m
trying to think of another song that has that example. It was just a formula
for a 52-week Number One,” he added with a laugh.
Lane made a point of expressing his
gratitude to the songwriters. “I heard there were several other artists who
wanted it, but I was the lucky guy that got it,” he said. “So thank you all so
very much, a, for writing a monstrous song and, b, for giving a young artist
like myself a chance on it because it changed my life and career.”
Hunter Phelps recalled the day they began
to write the song. “We actually wrote a different song that day,” he said. “And in typical Ashley fashion, he had twenty
or thirty minutes left before he had to go pick up his daughter at basketball.
We’d finished the first song and he wanted to write another one in twenty
minutes! So we threw out the idea and I think we wrote a third of the song that
day. We got the bones of it that day and a couple of months later, we finished
it up.”
Jameson Rodgers picked up the story. “I
guess we got the chorus the first day, and when we finished it up, I remember
it didn’t take long. I’m pretty sure we finished it and went to Martin’s BBQ
and it was really packed so it was between noon and one p.m. which means we’d
got done early because we definitely didn’t start [writing] before eleven!” All
four writers laughed at the recollection.
I then asked Chris if any couples ever come
up to him and say that they started dating after the guy used some of the ‘pick
up’ questions he’d picked up from listening to the lyrics in “I Don’t Know
About You.”
“I don’t think anyone said they’ve used the
lines,” he replied, “but a lot of couples come up and say, ‘This is our song!
This is our story!’” Nodding to the songwriters, he added, “I feel like the
guys definitely wrote out a blueprint for all guys going on a first date. They just listen to this song and they know
the questions to ask.”
The discussion then moved on to Lane’s
current single, “Big, Big Plans,” that is rapidly rising in the charts. He
talked about the role that the song played when he proposed to Lauren Bushnell
whom he met when she was a contestant on the TV show, The Bachelor.
“For me, ‘Big, Big Plans’ was just a very
personal song for my life and relationship and, I guess, the plans that I had
to propose and all that kind of stuff,” Lane admitted. “At that time, I had no
idea that I was going to use this song to propose. In fact, I got together with my
co-writers three different times to
try to finish this song and then the last time, I said, ‘Well, I do have plans
of proposing in the next couple of months.
Maybe we could write a proposal in and I could use this song to propose
to her.’ Everybody loved that idea and it happened very quickly from there and
I used the song [when I proposed]. I had no intentions of releasing it out into
the world but I guess it found its own way, and now it’s my new single that I’m
very excited about.”
You can see video of Chris playing “Big,
Big Plans” to Lauren on his phone for the first time, before going down on one
knee and proposing while the song plays in this video at YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh-MYDF0hr4 Video of their wedding is also included in
the official music video of “Big, Big Plans.” You can see it at YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-JOwTp6AeU
Lane talked about his new life as a married
man. “About a year and a half ago, I was
the guy who was saying, ‘I would never get married.’ It just wasn’t something I was looking for,”
he confessed. “But I met someone who
changed all of that and changed the way I thought about marriage and it’s been
amazing. I’m lucky that I married
someone that I fell in love with that I can call a friend as well. It’s like we’re best friends who love each
other. It’s been a big change for me, because I hadn’t really dated anybody in
a really long time so going from never really hanging around a lot of girls to
basically being married in a year’s time was quite a change,” he laughed.
Michael Hardy is a recording artist (simply
using the name HARDY) as well as a songwriter. He shared some information about
the song, titled “One Beer,” set for release in early February. It’s the one
that went crazy on social media and all the platforms,” he said of the
song. “As a songwriter, I love telling
stories. I think that song tells a really cool story. We just shot a music
video for it and I personally think it’s going to be one of the dopest music
videos that’s gonna come out this year.
Basically, it tells the story of what one beer can turn into. One beer can turn into someone saving
someone’s life and you’ll see it as the music video comes out, but I’m excited,
there’s a lot of hype around it. It’s selling really well and doing a lot of
cool stuff. I’m ready for it to go and see what it does.” See the video for
“One Beer” by HARDY featuring Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson at YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNai9Ns5Y4U
Chris Lane’s brother Cory is the drummer in
Chris’s touring band. I asked him if
there are pros and cons involved in working with a sibling. “The pros are we both get to play a lot of
golf together and we’re both very competitive, so that makes it a lot of
fun. Obviously, we’re twins, so I feel
like we share the same thoughts. It’s
kind of weird; we say the same things at the same times. So it’s super special
having someone you’re so close with be a part of this thing with me.”
But then, with a smile, he shared a story
about being on the road with Cory. “I’d
say some of the cons are people get us so confused all the time. I don’t get a
chance to go out after the shows or anything like that but I get tagged in so
many [social media] photos each night with people saying, ‘Just met Chris
Lane,’ but it’s always a picture of him! I tell him all the time, ‘Dude!
Start telling people that you’re NOT me!’
Michael Hardy is a recording artist (simply
using the name HARDY) as well as a songwriter. He shared some information about
the song, titled “One Beer,” set for release in early February. It’s the one
that went crazy on social media and all the platforms,” he said of the
song. “As a songwriter, I love telling
stories. I think that song tells a really cool story. We just shot a music
video for it and I personally think it’s going to be one of the dopest music
videos that’s gonna come out this year.
Basically, it tells the story of what one beer can turn into. One beer can turn into someone saving
someone’s life and you’ll see it as the music video comes out, but I’m excited,
there’s a lot of hype around it. It’s selling really well and doing a lot of
cool stuff. I’m ready for it to go and see what it does.” See the video for
“One Beer” by HARDY featuring Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson at YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNai9Ns5Y4U
More about Chris Lane at his website https://iamchrislane.com/ and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/IAmChrisLane/
Special note:During the media meeting before the award presentations for “I
Don’t Know About You,” Chris Lane and the songwriters talked about what drew
them to Nashville and how they got to this level of success. You can read my report in another story at
this site.
PHOTOS:
2. Pictured
(L-R): ASCAP Songwriter Jameson Rodgers, BMI Songwriter Michael Hardy,
Chris Lane, ASCAP Songwriter Hunter Phelps, ASCAP Songwriter Ashley
Gorley. Photo: Ed Rode
1. Chris Lane at the No. 1 party
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