Lyrics Uncovered: Dan + Shay, ‘From the Ground Up’
Dan + Shay's "From the Ground Up" lyrics describe a very real, very long-lasting love. The two men recall being moved by the deaths of their respective grandfathers and the love they shared with their wives.
“My grandfather had recently passed away, and Shay’s was in the hospital,” Dan Smyers tells Taste of Country. “We were talking about how our grandparents were married — they were each married for 65 or more years, which is crazy.”
“That kind of love is something we would strive for in our own personal relationships," he adds.
“Grandma and grandpa painted a picture / Off 65 years and one little house / More than a memory / More than saying I do / Kiss you goodnight’s and I love yous / Me and you baby, will walk in their footsteps / Build our own family / One day at a time / Ten little toes, a painted pink room / Our beautiful baby looks just like you.”
The duo were actually preparing to cut vocals for a different song they had written with Chris DeStefano when the conversation about grandparents began. The "From the Ground Up" lyrics came quickly. In 90 minutes they had a finished song. A few minutes after that, they had an acoustic demo to show friends, family and the record label.
“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 / For worse or for better / And I will be all you need / Beside you I’ll stand through the good and the bad / We’ll give all that we have / And we’ll build this love from the ground up.”
Everyone agreed the song was special, but it still needed to pass the ultimate test. Eventually Shay Mooney’s grandfather also passed, meaning his grandmother lost the love of her life for 65 years.
“I actually played it for my grandma the first time after we had gotten the video back,” he recalls. “Not a lot of emotion was shown on her part up until I showed her that song. She just started bawling.”
It’s the right song at the right time because it goes against the negativity one hears so much of in the media. “People need a real song and something that is like a true love song,” Mooney adds. “We wanted something that really isn’t being done right now.”
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