Hidden Gem: Kenny Chesney’s “Where I Grew Up”

kenny chesney hemingway's whiskey

Released on Kenny Chesney’s 2010 album Hemingway’s Whiskey, “Where I Grew Up” ranks among the most impressive of his catalog. Written by Ashley Gorley, Kelley Lovelace, and Neil Thrasher, the song details the things typically attributed to getting older – the family home, or drinking beer by a lake – but places aging instead in very specific moments: his grandfather’s death, seeing his mother cry, or flipping his truck.

See I gained a little on Father Time
That night I crossed that center line
I bet I rolled a dozen times

Next thing I knew I was waking up upside down
Praying God just get me out
Then I hit my knees beside what was left of my truck
Hey, that’s where I grew up

“I haven’t had one of these songs in a while,” Chesney told Billboard of the song in 2010. ‘Where I Grew Up’ is a song that you really look for, you hope you get three or four of them in a career. And I’ve been lucky to have three or four of them. This is me. I’ve been in every scenario in this song. I remember as a kid writing in one of my buddy’s yearbook, “I hope we never grow up.” And I try in lots of ways to make that philosophy come true, but then again you realize in some ways I already had. My grandfather died when I was a kid, and I grew up a little bit. I think this song teaches us that there are things in our lives that force us to grow up.”

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