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Behind The Song: Luke Bryan- "To The Moon And Back"

By Radio.com Staff

Behind the Song gives fans an inside look into some of the best songs by this year's ACM Awards nominees. Here, Luke Bryan -- nominated for Entertainer of the Year -- talks about "To the Moon and Back" from his 2015 album, 'Kill the Lights.'

If you're a guy who is, perhaps, uncomfortable talking about feelings, how do you tell the woman that you love how you feel? A good song is always helpful. And that's one of the great things about Luke Bryan's "To the Moon and Back," written by Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey and Tony Lane.

“The second I heard it I told myself, 'Well, this is a really, really manly, masculine way to tell your wife and tell people you love them. It’s not cheesy, it’s like a wedding song,'" Luke Bryan recalls. "Two years ago if you’d have told me I’d be sitting here going, 'Well, this song could be a big wedding song for a lot of people,' I would’ve looked at you like you had four heads." He says he just wasn't "that guy" back then.

Bryan compares the song to one of his earlier classics, which also expresses difficult emotions: "'Drink a Beer' was a sad song for me," he says. "It was a sad song, but it was tough, and it said what I wanted to say in the right way, and so does 'To the Moon and Back.' It’s perfectly done, and I think a man’s man could put that song in and go, 'Baby, this is a song that I want you to hear, and it makes me think about us,' and I think that’s the cool thing about 'To the Moon and Back.'"

"I always know that I’ve got my core fans that let me go have some fun with 'Kick the Dust Up,'" he says. "But then [they'll] let me do 'Drink a Beer' or 'To the Moon and Back,' and they know that they’re a part of this journey with me, and I know I’ll have them for as long as I’m putting music out there. It’s certainly something very special, and when I say my prayers every night it’s like, 'Gosh, I’m so glad that country music found me.'"

Watch the ACM Awards on CBS on Sunday April 2 at 8 pm ET/7 CT.

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