Bryant focuses his muse on the commonalities people share. "We all have a destination," he says. "We all have dreams we want to follow. I’m no different than anybody else, I just sing about it. It's my job to put the party on and give people a good reason to have fun." And that he does, whether it's in the soaring groove of "Summertime Saturday High," the sparkling "Fire,” unabashed romanticism of "Change Your Name” or the vocally-charged, guitar-shredding debut single "Take It On Back."
Raised in Orange Grove, TX (pop. 1,200), Bryant's grandfather played piano in Roy Orbison’s first two bands and, later, for Waylon Jennings. His uncles co-founded the group Ricochet, which had several hits in the '90s. "From the time I was a kid, the only thing I wanted to do was play music," he says.
"I was two or three years old and heard Jerry Lee Lewis’ 'Lewis Boogie' come on my grandfather’s record player. I remember hearing him say, 'My name is Jerry Lee Lewis and I’m from Louisiana' ... and I had an identity crisis! I thought I was Jerry Lee and would walk around saying that. In school, I was the odd kid. There were 20 guitars in town and I owned all of them."
Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, Tom Petty, Vince Gill, Bob Wills, Steve Wariner, Bryan Adams and more were early influences, but a confluence of releases brought him to a turning point. "Keith Urban's Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing and records by Sarah Buxton and Jedd Hughes did it," he says. "I knew I wanted to play mainstream country – I always knew. But those records told me that I could be that and still write guitar riffs that would stick in somebody’s head."
"I never wanted to be anybody else," he says. "My grandfather always told me ‘you can't be good at being anybody else. You can only be good at being yourself.’"
Songwriting was an integral part of his development. "It goes back, of course, to getting my heart broken in school," he says. "Some girl broke up with me – I may have been 11 or 12, and I just wrote it down. I was never great at reading, but I liked words, phrases and sentences. The only way I knew to let people know me is through writing. I'd just look at my life, grab some paper and put it down.
"The other thing I'd do is have melodies playing in my head. Something would pop up and I'd just go, 'There it is.' " Encouraged by his parents, particularly his school-teacher mother, he graduated early and moved west. "All I wanted to do was play music and Los Angeles was my first attempt," Bryant says. "Somebody asked me to go out there and write for this little company and I took the first flight. The dream was that simple, but you can't stop before the miracle happens. You have to keep going. And I feel like it was a miracle just making it out of Orange Grove. I loved L.A., but Nashville is where I wanted to come. I probably wrote 400 lousy songs before I wrote my first good one. But one good one was enough to get Nashville managers, pluggers and publishers on board."
Because of his Roy Orbison connection, someone suggested a meeting with Roy's widow, the late Barbara Orbison, a prominent Nashville publisher, who signed Bryant on the spot, making him her final signing before she passed.
That road led Bryant to BBR Music Group imprint Red Bow Records, to which he signed in August 2013. During one early meeting, Founder Benny Brown, notoriously picky about working with producers, surprised Bryant. "He'd listen to my demos and say, 'Where did you cut that?' or 'Who produced that?' And I'd always say, 'In my closet. Cut it myself. Played it myself.' Benny trusted me enough to co-produce with Derek George (Randy Houser, Joe Nichols). He gave me the reins, which was something I always wanted."
Brown's confidence was noteworthy if for no other reason than the fact that Bryant is completely self-taught as a producer. "There were no studios in Orange Grove," Bryant explains. "My parents took me to a Guitar Center and let me get what I needed. From there, I started building little tracks that I would listen to in the car and compare with what I heard on the radio. I taught myself how to make stuff sound bigger and better.”
Despite being on the cusp of exceptional achievement for someone so young (having recently been named one of “The Best Things We Saw at CMA Music Fest 2014” by Rolling Stone) Bryant sees little difference between himself and the audience. "We're all fans," he says. "We're all friends. And the music is our connection. To me, it's a lifelong relationship and we'll all get where we're going together. That's the beauty of music. This is the first chapter of my book, and I think people will find it defines where they're at just as much as it defines where I'm at -- because we're the same – I'm just the guy with the guitar. If I wasn't, I'd be the guy on the front row with his arm around his girl raising a glass to the guy onstage. No question. It's just who I am. Music is everything."
Hell If I Know
Chase Bryant Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Turns blue sky black
Why fast lane feel so slow and a slow kiss feels so fast
Why the years roll back
With the right perfume
How the first time that I saw you it felt like deja vu
Hell if I know
Getting lost in your eyes and a Friday high
Never gets old when the rock n roll on the radio knows
Just how to make you slide close
Why a girl like you
Chose a guy like a me
And everything I got
Is everything you need
Why you even said hello
Hell if I know
Hell if I know
Why an ice cold beer
Is fire on your lips
Why everything thing looks better hanging off of your hips
Why a roof top rain
It makes you want to dance
Why God gave guys like me a second chance
Hell if I know
Why the stars align
Getting lost in your eyes and a Friday high
Never gets old when the rock n roll on the radio knows
Just how to make you slide close
Why a girl like you
Chose a guy like a me
And everything I got
Is everything you need
Why you even said hello
Hell if I know
Hell if I know
The more I live
The more I know
That I all I know
That all I know is
Hell if I know
Why the stars align
Getting lost in your eyes and a Friday high
Never gets old when the rock n roll on the radio knows
Just how to make you slide close
Why a girl like you
Chose a guy like a me
And everything I got
Is everything you need
Why you even said hello
Hell if I know
Hell if I know
Oh yeah
And everything I got Is everything you need
Hell If I know
In the song "Hell If I Know" by Chase Bryant, the singer expresses his bewilderment at the inexplicable magic of love. He uses various examples from his experiences to describe the mystery of how the simplest things can become the most appealing, and how love can make one feel young again. He sings about how the sunset can create an aura of mystery and how a fast lane can become monotonous while a slow kiss can be brief but remarkably memorable. He is wondering how the right aroma can trigger memories; how it is that when he met his beloved for the first time, it felt like they had already met before.
The chorus of "Hell If I Know" highlights his confusion further by describing how he cannot explain why everything falls into place when he is with his love, how time seems to be infinite when they are together, and how the sight of his love never loses its potency. He is also perplexed about why his love chose him and how he became the person she needed, and how their love story began in the first place. The singer concludes the song with the realization that the more he knows, the more he realizes that he does not know anything about love.
Line by Line Meaning
Why the red sunset
Reflecting on the beauty of the world.
Turns blue sky black
Exploring the complexity of the mundane.
Why fast lane feel so slow and a slow kiss feels so fast
Contemplating the paradoxes of life and love.
Why the years roll back
Reflecting on the nostalgic power of memory.
With the right perfume
Acknowledging the sensory triggers that evoke memories.
How the first time that I saw you it felt like deja vu
Comparing the feeling of meeting someone new to the sensation of reliving a past experience.
Hell if I know
Admitting ignorance and embracing the mysteries of life.
Why the stars align
Musing on the phenomenon of coincidence.
Getting lost in your eyes and a Friday high
Describing the overwhelming feeling of love and joy.
Never gets old when the rock n roll on the radio knows
Finding solace and comfort in music.
Just how to make you slide close
Referring to the intimate connection between music and physical touch.
Why a girl like you
Wondering about the reasons for someone's choices and actions.
Chose a guy like a me
Expressing gratitude for being chosen despite self-doubt.
And everything I got
Acknowledging one's self-worth and value in a relationship.
Is everything you need
Emphasizing the importance of mutual support and understanding in a partnership.
Why you even said hello
Reflecting on the significance of a chance encounter.
The more I live
Reflecting on the accumulation of life experience.
The more I know
Realizing the depth of one's ignorance and the vastness of the unknown.
That I all I know
Acknowledging the limits of one's knowledge and understanding.
Oh yeah
Casual interjection.
And everything I got Is everything you need
Reiterating the importance of mutual support and understanding.
Hell If I know
Reaffirming acceptance and humility in the face of uncertainty.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: ANDREW DORFF, JON NITE, LINDSAY JACK RIMES
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Federica Corti
Chase Bryant, what a great discovery!
I was in line to go to the restroom when I first heard Chase Bryant. He sounded so good I forgot i needed to pee and I decided to go to the stage to see who was playing.
Thank you for blessing us all with your music!
Chase Bryant
Thank you so much Federica 🙏,I sincerely hope you never stop listening to my music🎶 ❤️❤️❤️
Tien Trinh
What’s your IG?
Jessica Hickey
Wow!! Im irish and this is wow! I love country music especially hunter hayes...I just think every word means something
jonasfan4ever09
Obsessed with this song 😍😍😍
Paula Jane
I love everything about this song forever so sweet 🎸💯♥️
Jason Villarreal
Awesome song! Can't wait for more music Chase!
Luigi P
I am SO glad Lorenzo Floris took this song in promotion! that's awesome, this great song will finally found its popularity
Mordecai GJ Hoko
Just started on my road trip and what a way to start it off with this song, thanx for a super dope track.
Nicholas Kearney
Amazing work on this song. Can't wait for it to blow up. This deserves #1