When Luke Bryan first heard “Most People Are Good,” the second single from his 2017 What Makes You Country album, he instantly gravitated towards the song, even though it’s one he didn’t write.
The song, written by David Frasier, Ed Hill and Josh Kear, says, “I believe most people are good / And most mama’s ought to qualify for sainthood / I believe most Friday nights look better under neon or stadium lights / I believe you love who you love / Ain’t nothing you should ever be ashamed of,” resonated not only with Bryan, but with the LGBT community, who have been largely under-represented in country music. Their support of the song is something Bryan is grateful for, even if it wasn’t something he expected.
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“The first time I heard the song I was just so enamored with the whole body of the work of the song, and everything it was saying and doing,” Bryan revealed to PopCulture.com at a recent media event. “That line kinda bypassed me as somebody in the LGBT community latching onto it. I mean I just heard it as just love; I kind of heard it as just a love line. I didn’t really pick it apart that way.
“And I will be truthful,” he continued, “I thought about it as even an inner-racially charged line originally. But that’s only even after I had multiple listens of the song. And then as people started asking me about it, and going into even recording it, somebody brought up, ‘Would you ever have changed that line? ‘And I would’ve been like, ‘Are you crazy? Not in a million years.’”
Bryan stands behind not only that line, but the entire message of the song.
“I think that song is about just the world in general,” Bryan said. “And I think that line certainly can and needs to be interpreted how the listener ought to. I think it can free up the Nashville community to get closer and closer of writing whatever you want to write, and stuff like that. And, I think that’s what music is about.”
The Georgia native’s latest single, “Sunrise Sunburn Sunset,” is already in the Top 25. The fun, up-tempo hit is a far cry from the emotional “Most People Are Good” single, and more like the fun, catchy songs Bryan is known for – even though not everyone is a fan.
“Certainly, I’ve caught flack for my styles of country,” Bryan admits to Billboard. “When I read something negative about myself, it kind of gets me down. But the true traditionalists, they’ll always bark. I mean, everybody wants hair metal back. Everybody wants the ’70s back, and it just doesn’t work that way. It’s not coming back.”
Purchase What Makes You Country at LukeBryan.com, where dates for all of his shows on his current What Makes You Country Tour are also available.
Photo Credit: Getty images/Jason Kempin
