Morgan Wallen has had a successful streak on the Billboard charts this week, and another country superstar wanted to get his hands on one of his new hits: Luke Bryan.
“Sand in My Boots” is the first track on Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, which topped the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums in the week ending Jan. 23, and it hit No. 8 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Wallen chatted with his frequent collaborators HARDY, who co-wrote “Sand in My Boots,” and Charlie Handsome on Apple Music Country’s Happy Hour Radio on Friday (Jan. 22) about how the song came to be and how both Wallen and Bryan “fell in love” with it.
“I just had that idea in my phone for forever. And I went in to write with Ashley Gorley and Josh Osborne at Smack, right across the street from Big Loud. And I just had this idea called ‘Sand in My Boots,’” HARDY said. “I just had this idea about just a summer love kind of thing. And I wanted to call it ‘Sand in My Boots.’”
“I listened to it. I immediately fell in love with it, man,” Wallen chimed in about his initial reaction to hearing the demo. “I knew I was going to have to change some of your Mississippi sh– off of there, but that’s all right,” Wallen laughed.
However, that “summer love kind of thing” wasn’t meant to be between the song and Bryan. HARDY told Wallen during the interview that the “Play It Again” hitmaker “fell in love with it too,” but he and Wallen didn’t know how he had even heard the demo.
“We were all like, ‘Man, we wanted you [Wallen] to have it. We thought you could make it cool.’ So he missed out, dawg,” HARDY said.
“Sorry, Luke,” Wallen teased at the end.
Since Wallen is still slated to open for Bryan’s Proud to Be Right Here Tour this summer, maybe they’ll get to perform “Sand in My Boots” together soon.
Listen to their entire conversation on Apple Music Country’s Happy Hour Radio here, and listen to “Sand in My Boots” below.
