Little Big Town released a new album Mr. Sun today! They stopped by The Bobby Bones Show to share some stories behind the project.
Bobby Bones asked them how they picked good songs for the project after already having so much success. They credited this project to so much of their time being spent songwriting, which is why Mr. Sun has 16 songs on the album. Adding that there's 20 more songs they weren't able to put out with this project. The first song on the tracklist is All Summer, which was their first song they recorded after the COVID pandemic. They felt it set the tone for people to feel fun and hopeful and they wanted their record to sound the same way. The very last song on the album is their favorite song they've ever cut called "Friends Of Mine." They believe the song shared some encouragement for people. And they also thought the song would make a good closer for their tour shows acting as basically a thank you to their fans. "Rich Man" was written by Jimi by himself. He started writing it in 2009, but it was one of those songs he couldn't ever finish. But it kept coming back around to him, and he was finally able to finish it a year ago. Jimi played the song for some friends who had a genuine emotional reaction to it and they decided it had to be on Mr. Sun. There's also a song on the project Bones told them he couldn't say, which is the track "Hell Yeah." Little Big Town wanted him to do it, but he told them he won't break his streak of not cussing in 4 years.
Despite their massive success, Little Big Town does still get nervous for some performances. They recalled two recent ones where they were very nervous. One was in Dublin, Ireland where they were opening for The Eagles and it was very rainy weather. The felt the crowd didn't know them very well and they had a lot to prove, which is hard in that type of weather climate. They also recalled being nervous performing at the ACM Honors to honor Miranda Lambert. They were performing her song "House That Built Me," and being that she's one of their best friends, they wanted their performance to live up to that moment. Little Big Town also admitted some of their songs that are the easiest and the hardest for them to perform live. "Boondocks" and "Pontoon" are their easiest and most fun songs to perform, while their song "When Someone Stops Loving You" is the hardest for them all vocally.
One of their biggest hits "Better Man" was written by Taylor Swift. When she re-released some of her work, she included her version of "Better Man" from her vault. The group says they're really happy she put out her version, especially since the story of the song is so incredible. They thought her version was super cool, even though some Swift fans have shared on social media they never want to hear Karen sing it anymore.