It is January of 2023, and I only just realized that Tim McGraw’s “7500 OBO” features the fiddle riff of “Where The Green Grass Grows” in the background…
Maybe I’m late to the party, and I’ll be the first to admit that I tend to pay more attention to lyrics than music for a lot of my favorite songs, but this is absolutely awesome and I’m upset with myself for not hearing that distinct fiddle in the background!
I took a quick poll of some family and friends and no one else had noticed this musical tidbit either, so I did a little digging for the story behind the song.
Not only does it include the musical signature of “Where The Green Grass Grows” it also references Tim’s 2007 hit, “Shotgun Rider” and a subtle tagline that mentions letting it go, another reference to his 2000s hit “Let It Go.”
“Shotgun Rider”
“Let It Go”
Here are the chorus lyrics for “7500 OBO” and some of the faint hints to other Tim McGraw hits:
“Shotgun ridin’ down a two lane road
Just drivin’ around with no place to go
Us singin’ along to “Where The Green Grass Grows”
Hands out the window floatin’ on the breeze
She’s fixin’ her lips in the drop down mirror
That pretty little thing made it hard to steer
I’m never gonna get her outta there
There’s too many memories
Now there’s a “For Sale” sign in the window
Yeah, ’cause if I’m gonna let her go
I gotta let it go, yeah, it’s gotta go
So it’s seventy-five hundred, OBO…”
A lot of country superstars who have been in the business for years, and in Tim’s case decades, have certain songwriters they work with predominantly and some continue to be involved in the songwriting as well.
So when I found out that “7500 OBO” had so many Tim references my immediate assumption was that the song had been written by him.
And apparently this is a common misconception.
In a radio interview post- song release, hosts commented on the success one must have in order to “namecheck themselves” which is essentially what Tim did in “7500 OBO,” but he did not write the song.
The song was actually penned by a trio of pop-country writers including Nathan Spicer who was a guitarist on tour with Katy Perry for several years before taking up songwriting full time. And even though the song seemed to strongly point to Tim McGraw, he had to stake his claim for it just like any other artist.
The radio host pointed out:
“These writers were fishing for Tim McGraw.”
And Tim liked to think that was the case:
“When we had the demo, it had a little piece of that ‘Green Grass Grows’ fiddle in it. We put it in there as well but we had to do it a little different to make it fit right. But it also has ‘Let It Go’ in there.
So, I think it was pretty much aimed at me, which is cool because it makes me think, alright, if they aimed the song at me then maybe I can sing it. So it gave me a little confidence goin’ in.
It took me a minute to get my head around that, saying, ‘Should I sing this song or should someone else sing this song?’ But at the end of the day, it was just a really good song.”
You’ve got to give this one another listen with new ears so you can hear it for yourself:
“7500 OBO”
