The singer reveals he had just signed a deal with Mercury Records when he was invited to join “20 other dudes” on a hunting expedition, and the idea for the song came to him while he was celebrating his kill at a bar.
He tells Billboard.com, “We were still in our hunting clothes and there was a highway patrolman with us, named John. He decided to ask this cowgirl to dance.
“We said, ‘She’s dressed for the night and you’re in fatigues; you’ve been in the field all day’. She shoots him down and five minutes later, a cowboy cruises up and takes her right out on the dance floor, and I’m like, ‘John, you should’ve been a cowboy!’
“Back in my hotel room, the guy I was rooming with was going to crash, so I took my guitar into the bathroom and shut the door. Twenty minutes later, I came out with the song, ready to record. It ended up being my first single.”
