Clay Walker Wanted Either Randy Travis or Clint Black To Record One of His Biggest Hits

In 1993, Clay Walker released “Live Until I Die“. The song is Walker’s second consecutive No. 1 hit. On his eponymous freshman album, “Live Until I Die” follows “What’s It To You“, Walker’s first single and first song to hit No. 1.

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Walker is the sole writer of “Live Until I Die”. While it may seem like the song is tailor-made for him, Walker reveals he actually did not want to record the song, hoping it would go to a country music superstar instead.

“I never really had confidence in my voice at that time,” Walker says (via Songfacts). “My goal was to pitch it to Randy Travis or Clint Black, because I wanted to get a cut, thinking that would lead to a record deal of my own.”

Even more surprising, Walker wasn’t even old enough to vote when he wrote “Live Until I Die”, penning the song when he was just 17 years old.

“The song kind of wrote itself. There was no struggle at all,” Walker recalls. “Melody and words all came to me at the same time, and I wrote it in one night. It was like I was on this road – and it was the right road the whole time.”

The Message in “Live Until I Die” by Clay Walker

“Live Until I Die” is an inspirational song about not letting life pass you by. The song says, “Skippin’ rocks, skippin’ rope / Laughin’ at all my best friend’s jokes / Things I loved when I was a kid / Muddy roads, muddy feet / I didn’t live on no blacktop street / Things have changed a lot, but I never did / And I don’t wanna think about tomorrow / I don’t need anything money can buy / I don’t have to beg, steal, or borrow / I just wanna live until I die.”

The Texan didn’t need to look far to find inspiration for one of his biggest hits.

“I wrote that song for my grandmother,” Walker says. “That’s the way I grew up. Muddy roads, muddy feet. I didn’t live on the blacktop street. Every line of that is my autobiography. And when I got my first check for writing that song, it was an enormous amount of money. I thought that a mistake had been made because I was still poor. I still didn’t have any money because I was just trying to make it. And that song had gone to number one. And the first time that went to the mailbox and that check was in there, I opened it up, and I literally thought someone made a very gross error.”

It was not an error, fortunately. Walker used part of the money from his first check to build his grandmother a house.

Photo by Beth Gwinn/Redferns