Chris Lane Co-Hosts ‘Backstage Country’ and Gets Real About Breakups

This week on Backstage Country, Chris Lane joined Elaina Smith as guest co-host. Lane opened up about his brand-new album, Shade Tree. It’s safe to say: this one’s a little deeper, a little twangier, and a whole lot more personal. With his latest album, Lane’s showing a different side which includes a good ol’ fashioned breakup track. 

Smith shared that his song “What Am I Supposed to Tell the Dog” is the best take she’s heard in a while on a breakup song. We know what you’re thinking: Chris Lane? Writing a breakup song? Isn’t this the guy who gave us “Big, Big Plans” and made half the country sob during his proposal video? Yes, he is. 

Lane shared the unconventional way he was inspired to write the song. He said, “This was a song I did that my wife accidentally gave to me. She said, ‘Hey, jokingly, if something ever happens to us, I'm keeping Cooper,’ which is our dog.” The “Fix” singer said, chuckling. 

He continued, “I got outside, I was mowing the yard that day, and I really got to thinking about that. I'm like, ‘That could be a song. Why have I never heard that idea written before?’ So, I just wrote it down in my notes and tried to think about how to write it while I was mowing the yard. I just write down, ‘What am I supposed to tell the dog?’ Now, I didn't know that was going to end up being the title, but three years after I wrote that down, I was writing with Jameson Rogers, Seth Mosley, who also produced some songs on this record, and Lydia Vaughn. And through this idea, I've had this forever, but I feel like there could be something to it. I threw it out early in the riot, and everybody was like, ‘Ooh, I love that, but how do we write that?’ Like we really need to think about that. And then I threw out another song I did called ‘Problematic,’ which is on my record.” 

Lane shared they almost forgot “What Am I Supposed to Tell the Dog,” if it weren’t for Rogers: “As we were about to leave, Jameson was like, ‘Hey, the 'What Am I Supposed to Tell the Dog' idea? I've got to be a songwriter on that. Can we at least just sit down and write a few words so I can know that we can come back to it?’ We sat down, and I swear, 30 minutes later, this song was done. It just fell out so fast. And by far one of my favorite songs, I've ever written.” 

Don’t miss Lane co-hosting Backstage Country all week long. So tune in, turn it up, and let Shade Tree soundtrack your week. Get the album here.