INTERVIEW: Chris Janson Talks 'Holdin' Her' | Music You Should Know
September 2, 2016
Chris Janson released his debut album Buy Me A Boat last October, which debuted at No. 4 on the Top Country Albums chart and No. 18 on the Billboard 200. His first single off the album, the title track "Buy Me A Boat," won him an iHeartRadio Music Award this year for Country Song of the Year, and it looks like the 30-year-old singer/songwriter has another hit on his hands with his current single "Holdin' Her."
We recently caught up with Chris in Nashville, Tennessee, and he told us all about his song during an exclusive interview.
On the meaning behind his single "Holdin' Her"
"'Holdin' Her' is a true story. It's about my real life. I say a lot of my songs are real life but especially this one. This one is absolutely front to back real life. From the moment that I saw my wife, before she was my wife, to the proposal, which was an amazing thing that I did with my kids, my bonus kids, and it talks about the whole duration of going into fatherhood with my kids that we had together. So, the story goes is this. I saw her for the first time in an underground pool hall called Melrose Billiards, in Nashville, Tennessee, and I looked at my buddy and told him I was gonna marry her, and he kind of laughed and chuckled. And three years later I got the opportunity, and I did it. And so, when you put things like that out into the world, sometimes, you're just shootin' in the wind, but it really happened for me, so a dream came true. And I walked into a house with Kelly that was already a home with kids in it and the greatest part about this whole situation from the get-go is I learned so much right off the bat. I became a step-dad to what I call bonus kids. I don't like the word stepkids, so that just took off like fire. It was amazing. Frankly, we became really good friends and you have to just learn to shuck and jive with people that you never been around before and I really love my family and that was the first intro dad-hood. And they did the proposal with me, they planned the proposal with me, and that's all in 'Holdin' Her.' Same as in the music video, you see my bonus kids in there and our youngest two in there."
Something you might not know about "Holdin' Her" is that it's the oldest song on Chris's album. In fact, he tells us that he's recorded the song a number of times because he'd never been able to capture the track the way that he wanted to. "It's the one song that I wanted to be a single for so many years, I can't even tell you. I've recorded the song numerous times; I just never captured it the way I wanted to until this recording, and this timing with Warner Bros. And now here we are and it's catchin' wildfire. I'm so proud of it."
On what it was like writing "Holdin' Her"
"It was an easy song to write because when you write about real life, you don't have to make up stuff to fill the blanks. And sometimes you do as a songwriter, but not in this case. Not in Buying A Bookcase either. But with 'Holdin' Her' you just write your real story down on paper, and a lot of people are afraid to do that kind of thing. I'm not and whether I'm singing the song or someone else is recording my song, you can 99.9% always you're going to get real deal me."
Check out what else Chris had to say about "Holdin' Her" in the video below:
Photo: Zack Massey for iHeartRadio