‘Momma’s House’ Reminds Dustin Lynch of the Pain of Losing His ‘High School Sweetheart’
Dustin Lynch's burn-it-all-down breakup rager "Momma's House" is currently a Top 10 hit on Billboard's Country Airplay chart — a feat he credits to the song's universal relatability.
"I think [it resonates with fans] for the same reason it resonated with me the first time I heard it," he explains, noting that almost everybody has gone through a breakup that left them blindsided.
For Lynch, the desperation of that breakup was compounded by the fact that it happened in his small Tennessee hometown, and he wasn't sure if, or when, he'd ever be able to meet anyone else.
"Being from a small town like myself — you only get one option, usually, to have a high school sweetheart," Lynch tells Taste of Country during a recent virtual media event.
"By the time you ruin that [option], all your buddies have dated the others," the singer recounts, speaking of his own experience. "I ruined — or, she ruined, I guess! — what I thought was going to be lifelong relationship, and I remember thinking the world ended."
Like many heartbroken high schoolers before him, Lynch leaned on the healing power of music to get him through that experience. "Thank God for a John Mayer record and whatever sad Rascal Flatts song was on the radio, to get me through those dark days," the singer notes with a chuckle.
Lynch didn't write "Momma's House" — Dylan Schneider, Rodney Clawson, Michael Lotten and Justin Wilson did — but given his strong emotional connection to the song, he admits he wishes he'd had the idea first.
"I still go, 'Damn, how did I not think of that?!'" he says.
Lynch recently released his next single, a new duet version of "Thinking 'Bout You" with up-and-comer MacKenzie Porter. He selected Porter as his collaborator after putting out an open call for auditions, then listening to them without learning what their names were and selecting his favorite. As it happens, back when he was compiling songs to record for his Tullahoma album, Lynch employed a similar process to find "Momma's House," putting out an open call to the creative minds of the Nashville songwriting community.
"We had an event looking for special songs. I forget what we titled it, but it was something like, 'Your Best Two,' or something," he remembers. "Every plugger, publisher and writer who got the memo got to submit their two favorite songs — but only two. We got hundreds of submissions."
One of them, of course, was "Momma's House," a song the country star says immediately drew him in as a listener.
"Whenever I saw the title on the mp3, or whatever it was, I was like, 'Ah, I think I know what this is gonna be about. Then I played it," he remembers. "[It was] a bit of a quirky demo, kinda caught my ear, and then it just hooked ya."
"Momma's House" is the third single off Tullahoma, Lynch's January 2020 project. It follows back-to-back chart-toppers "Good Girl" and "Ridin' Roads."
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