'Dirt on My Boots' is a bit autobiographical for songwriter Rhett Akins and a bit 90s hip-hop

When songwriters Jesse Frasure, Ashley Gorley and Rhett Akins sat down to write "Dirt on My Boots," for Jon Pardi, the trio wanted something that had a "No Diggity" bounce to it. The late '90s Blackstreet/Dr. Dre hit may have inspired the song they were about to write, but aside from a super-infectious hook, the two songs couldn't be more different.

Bart Herbison, executive director of Nashville Songwriters Association International, sat down with Frasure and Akins to talk about how the song was written and how in the world they were able to convince Pardi's team that he needed to have back-to-back songs about boots on the heels of the success of "Head Over Boots."

Hip-hop inspiration?

Bart Herbison: "I've heard in an interview the demo y'all sent for this was kind-of hip-hop, but Pardi put his country spin on it. Is that the way you thought of it when you wrote it? Take us back to when the song was written, Jesse."

Jesse Frasure: "We all kind-of came up, including Rhett, loving a lot of different styles of music, whether it was classic rock or '90s hip-hop. One song we love that I play at every party I've ever DJed is a song called 'No Diggity.' We were like, 'if we had a country song that had that kind-of acoustic-y bounce to it... and that was the start-off point."

Frasure added it was amazing to watch the song go from that feel to the way producer Bart Butler crafted its unique sound. The bridge of the song, Frasure said, is a product all of the people in the studio. But once Pardi got ahold of the song, he wanted to lose the song's trademark "Yeah girl!"

Rhett Akins: "He said originally he loved everything about the demo except the 'Yeah girl!' part at the end of the chorus. So I think originally when they recorded it, he didn't sing that part... so there was just silence there... He said after he rode around in his truck for a week listening to the rough mixes. he caught himself singing it. He said he didn't think he liked it, but it's got to go back in the song and I think it's a huge part of the song."

Everyone can identify with the theme

BH: "It may be the perfect working-man-cleans-up-for-a-date-but-still-maintains-the-signs-of-every-man-as-he-gets-ready song."

Akins agreed, adding that the song is really about him, as well as 20,000 other people, apparently.

RA: "I get to play every year on Luke Bryan's farm tours, where we literally go out and play these farms and there's like 20,000 people out there. When we play this song, the best line of the whole song is 'I can only get so fancy.' I'll sing 'I can clean up if you ask me,' and I'll hold the microphone out and 20,000 people are like 'I can only get so fancy,' I think that line just resonates. It's me to a tee. I can wear a suit and tie. I can dress up and not wear a ball cap, but I am going to have on dirty, dusty boots as my shoe selection. I've been wearing the same boots for 20 years."

Two back-to-back boot songs

BH: "I wanna give Jon Pardi a lot of credit because he's just coming off of the single 'Head Over Boots' and I think you said he was recording it and I said 'he'll never single that song.' Talk about that because not only if I were the artist, but if I'm the label, I would have probably overthought another boots song."

JF: "Those are the moments that give me hope. It tells us that nobody truly knows because there are a thousand reasons I could see a song plugger going 'Oh, I can't play this.' Even when he cut it, we just didn't think it was going to happen, so for them to be brave enough to go, 'forget that, the fans don't care. Just put it out.' And that's true. I think most... music lovers don't analyze the moments like we do."

RA: "I give props to Mike Dungan... who just said... "We aren't going to put out two boot songs in a row, we are going to put out two hits in a row. I don't care if they both have boots in the title."

JF: "Fun fact: When this song came out, I got so many videos from parents saying this song resonated with kids so much, but multiple videos came in where the kids thought it said 'I got a little turd on my boots.'"

About the series

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, the "Story Behind the Song" video interview series features Nashville-connected songwriters discussing one of their compositions. For full video interviews with all our subjects, visit www.tennessean.com/music.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jon Pardi's hit 'Dirt on My Boots' inspired by Blackstreet's '90s hit 'No Diggity'