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Songwriter Brett James talks to The Boot about the inspiration behind the poignant song that he and Tim Nichols co-wrote for Chris Young.I've written two "prayer songs" -- 'Jesus Take The Wheel' [for Carrie Underwood] and 'The Man I Want To Be.'
Tim is one of my good songwriting buddies. He walked [into our writing appointment] with that song title. Ironically, it doesn't strike me as an in-your-face title like 'Jesus Take The Wheel' or 'The Truth' (another chart-topping song co-written by Brett, recorded by Jason Aldean). I thought the title doesn't make you interested in knowing what the song's about. Tim had a couple of lines already about wanting to be a good man and a "be like I should man." When that came out of his mouth, we started digging into that idea. I said, "What if we make it a prayer? What if he's talking to God about changing his life?" Make it that he's having a conversation with God -- not just a friend. That's when we really started finding that song, when we turned it into a prayer.
We all can relate to that -- wanting to be a better person and a better man. We wrote it from the heart about wanting to be better people and wanting to make changes in our own life.
The second verse we thought we had to bring in the girl and why he wants to be that better person. It's a big part of the reason you want to change your life to make better for people around you.
Download 'The Man I Want to Be' | Read the lyrics
Chris Young on AOL Music
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