It always brings the tears… so I can’t imagine what it meant to his family.
Trace Adkins has many hits, “You’re Gonna Miss This”, “Ladies Love Country Boys”, and of course, “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” come to mind as popular examples, but the most meaningful and heartfelt song in his catalog has to be “Arlington.”
The song was written by Jeremy Spillman and Dave Turnbull, and included as the second single from Adkin’s 2005 album, Songs About Me. It peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, and was pulled at that spot by Adkin’s record label in an effort to promote what would become a huge hit that peaked at #2 on the country charts, contrary to popular rumors at the time that he pulled it because some soldiers weren’t happy with the song.
The story was inspired by a real life soldier, United States Marine Corps Corporal Patrick Nixon, who was killed on March 23rd, 2003 in Iraq and buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Turnbull was inspired to write the song after meeting Patrick’s father. Adkins has stated many times that the song was never, ever meant to be political (I don’t know how that kind of song gets turned into some political statement, but I digress…), and he often still sings it at live shows and for different events.
And this week on Theo Von’s This Past Weekend podcast, he talked about how personal it was and why he chose to record that song. Trace explained that he felt it was very important to speak with Patrick’s family and play them the song before the released it.
Of course, they gave him their blessing, and he says that everybody was crying in the studio hearing it for the first time:
“That was a very personal… I didn’t write that, but it was such a personal thing that I knew who wrote it, and I knew the story behind it, and I knew who it was written about. So before we released that song, I asked the family to come in.
And we played the song for them, and I said, ‘Look, this song is written about your son, so we want your blessing before we put this out.’ Yeah, it was a very personal thing. Everybody listened to it and cried, and we got their blessing, and so that was cool. I haven’t seen the Nixons in a while.
It was about Patrick Nixon, he was a Marine, and his dad was a Marine and his granddad was a Marine, and so that’s where that song came from.”
The music video features shots of Arlington National Cemetery, just outside of D.C., where Trace appears with servicemen at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, laying a wreath as is part of tradition for the landmark.
The song in and of itself is so sad, touching and reverent, and if you know a Gold Star family and someone who is buried there, is just gives it an entirely different meaning. I know “Arlington” gets lost in the shuffle, so to speak, of some of Adkins’ bigger hits, but it’s easily one of the best in his catalog.
@theoreticalclips I Asked A Fallen Marine’s Family For Permission To Release This Heartbreaking Song 🎖️🎶 #theovonclips #theovonpodcast #theovon #traceadkins ♬ original sound – Theoretipsy
“Arlington”
The full podcast is available below.
