Happy Memorial Day, and a massive thank you to all of the men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line every single day so that we can all live freely in this country.
Of course, this day is a heavy one for so many Gold Star families who have lost loved ones in service to the United States, and whenever I stop and think about the many great country songs written in honor of our fallen soldiers, Lee Brice’s “I Drive Your Truck” comes to mind as one of the best.
It was included as the third single from his sophomore album Hard 2 Love, and was written by Jessi Alexander, Connie Harrington and Jimmy Yeary. It was Harrington who originally came up with the idea after hearing an interview on NPR with a man named Paul Monti, who is the father of the late Jared C. Monti, a sergeant in the Army who was tragically killed in Afghanistan on June 21st, 2006 when his patrol was ambushed.
During that interview, Monti talked about how he would still drive his son’s truck around to feel close to him, and according to Songfacts, Monti’s son was awarded the Medal of Honor, and he would drive his truck to remind him of Jared, as he explained:
“It’s got his DNA all over it.”
Harrington actually heard the interview on Memorial Day weekend in 2011, and because she was so touched by the story, she wrote it down as a song idea and the rest is history, as it topped the country charts, making it Brice’s third consecutive #1 It also crossed over onto the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #47, making it a minor crossover hit as well.
But even as big as the song became, Paul Monti didn’t know he had inspired it until after it was released. He had a friend send him the link to the video after it was released, because her son had died in the same battle as his and she knew he would drive his sons truck, like she did hers. He thought it was a beautiful song, and he cried watching the video, but he had no clue he had inspired it. Monti eventually got confirmation it was about him after Connie Harrington invited him to Nashville.
He met all of the writers, and spoke at the #1 party for the song, saying:
“This song honors every single Gold Star family in the country. They all hold on to something, whether it’s a truck, a car, dog tags, CDs, a baseball glove, a teddy bear – whatever it is, all of us hold on to something from our child.”
Brice told Billboard that he “lost it” the first time he heard it and knew he wanted to cut it:
“I went around town and listened to a lot of songs, and one of the publishers said, ‘I know you’re looking for some lighter stuff, but I’ve got a song that we feel is the song of the year.’ They played it, and I started losing it in front of everybody. It just killed me. It made me think about my granddaddy, and everybody I’d lost.
It became a personal song to me the very first time that I heard it, and I thought about my granddaddy, and what I would like to do with the video. Since it was so personal to me, I asked my brother to be the actual actor, the ‘star’ of the video. He did an amazing job on it, and I have a feeling that people are just going to be really moved by it.
At an event held later by the the Country Music Association, co-writer Jimmy Yeary said Connie cried throughout the entire writing process, and they would know if certain lyrics were up to snuff or not based on whether or not they made her cry:
“Connie absolutely cried like a baby at every point in writing this song.”
It won’t surprise you that “I Drive Your Truck” won the CMA for Song of the Year in 2013, as well as Song of the Year at the 2014 ACM Award too.
During one of her acceptance speeches, Harrington took time to address the thousands of Americans who could sadly relate to the story of losing a loved one in military action, saying poignantly:
“To every person in America who knows what it’s like to live the words of this song, God bless you.”
Amen to that… give this one a listen today as we reflect on the many sacrifices that have been made to protect all of us back home. As we all know, freedom comes with a very high price, and because of people like Jared Monti, we continue to enjoy that freedom every single day.
It’s an emotional song, one that so many can relate to outside of Gold Star families, too, but it just hits different on a day like today. Thank you just doesn’t cut it…
“I Drive Your Truck”
Here’s an interview with Jared’s father, Monti, speaking about his son:
