Songwriter Chris Wallin quipped he was “looking for family” when he was flipping through channels and landed on the Jerry Springer Show. Instead, he found the inspiration for Toby Keith‘s chart-topper “Love Me If You Can.”
“There was this guy – he comes out without a shirt on,” Wallin told NSAI’s Bart Herbison. “Where do they get all these people with no shirts?”
Jerry Springer’s audience booed the man immediately. Wallin said the guy had “10 baby mamas,” and Springer’s crowd hated him. Without missing a beat, the guy walked on stage, turned around, and addressed the theater of people.
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Hate Me If You Want To
“He says, ‘Y’all can hate me if you want to, but I wish you’d love me because I’m just a man,’” Wallin said.
Wallin’s ears perked up. He was channel surfing because he had a songwriting appointment with ASCAP’s Writer of the Century, Craig Wiseman, the following day. Wallin is a professional songwriter, and he said that when it’s someone’s job to write songs every day, it’s easy to run out of ideas. The half-naked man on Springer really helped him out.
His quote, “Hate me if you want to, but I wish you’d love me because I’m just a man,” became, “Hate me if you want to, but love me if you can.” When Wallin brought the idea to Wiseman the following day, he was inspired by the man’s uppity speech and wanted to make the song an up-tempo. Wiseman changed his mind, and they slowed it to a ballad.
Trace Adkins cut the song first, six years later. The following year, Toby Keith took “Love Me If You Can” and made it a hit.
Santa Poop in the Fireplace
As luck would have it, Kenny Chesney released “Don’t Blink,” which Wallin wrote with Casey Beathard. “Don’t Blink” knocked “Love Me If You Can” out of the top spot.
“It was a good month at the Wallin house,” he said.
However, there’s another part of the story. Wallin might have had back-to-back No. 1 hits, but when he went to his publisher to pick up his paycheck, it wasn’t there. He was feeling confident because of his No. 1 songs, and people were congratulating him as he walked into the room. After asking some questions, he learned he was half a song short of being able to collect his check. That meant he had to go co-write one more song to get paid.
That day, he wrote a song about Santa pooping in the fireplace called “Santa Left a Log in the Fireplace.” In the song, Santa found out that someone was sleeping with Mrs. Claus, so he left him an unexpected, steaming gift.
“That’s what I turned in,” he said. “I said, ‘Well, here’s you half a song.”
Love Everyone If You Can
While Wallin’s story behind the song is funny, he theorizes that Toby Keith’s reason for recording it wasn’t. The Oklahoman might have called himself the Big Dog Daddy, which is the name of the album “Love Me If You Can” is on. However, he was also one of country music’s most compassionate hearts.
The song discusses various contradictions, and the writers wondered whether they should express them.
“We come to the conclusion, ‘Well yeah, because that’s the whole premise of the song,’” Wallin said. “You might not like this about me. You’re talking about, ‘I give a dollar to a homeless person, but I feel like everyone should work if they can.’”
The premise behind the song is more poignant today than ever, the men said.
“Let’s actually be individuals and accept each other,” Wallin said. ” If we just see each other’s differences, we can love each other anyway. It’s possible.”
(Photo by Debby Wong)
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