“Both Shay’s and my grandparents were each married for over 65 years,” Dan Smyers of Dan + Shay said of “From The Ground Up.” “With all the divorces and stuff that goes on in media these days, that’s the example that we want to strive for in our relationships.”
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There are many country songs about breakups, fights, getting even, feeling lonely, and other melancholy topics. In this track, Dan + Shay take the opposite approach, feeling markedly optimistic about love. Check out the meaning behind this track, below.
[RELATED: Top 10 Songs by Dan + Shay]
Behind the Meaning
Grandma and grandpa painted a picture
Of 65 years in one little house
More than a memory
More than saying I do
The song opens with lyrics about an enduring marriage, modeled after the duo’s own grandparents. They call their story More than a memory / More than saying I do / Kiss you goodnights
And I love you’s.
“This song began with a discussion as I was just returning from my grandpa’s funeral in Ohio,” Smyers once shared with Rolling Stone. “We shared stories about the true love of our grandparents, and the song basically wrote itself.”
We’ll walk in their footsteps
We’ll build our own family
One day at a time
10 little toes
A painted pink room
Our beautiful baby looks just like you
As the song goes on, the duo turn their attention away from their grandparents’ story and toward their own. We can only imagine that in the wake of both singers getting married, these lyrics hit even harder.
“To make a great relationship work, you need to work at it,” Smyers continued in the same interview. “There will be ups and downs, and one thing that is slightly lost on our generation is the commitment to stick with it.”
And we’ll build this love from the ground up
Now til forever it’s all of me, all of you
Just take my hand and I’ll be the man your dad hoped that I’d be
And we’ll build this love from the ground up
Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
