Story Behind the Song: Jason Aldean, ‘Big Green Tractor’

David Lee Murphy and Jim Collins co-wrote the song "Big Green Tractor," which Jason Aldean recorded for his Wide Open album. Aldean released the song as a single in May of 2009, and in September of that year, it became his third No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, spending four weeks in the top spot.

"Big Green Tractor" also earned a Top 20 spot on the Hot 100 (No. 18) and has been certified multi-platinum. Below, Murphy tells The Boot about how the song came to be.

I live outside of Nashville; I spend a lot of time out on my farm and on my tractor. The night before [Jim and I] had gotten together to write, I was out bush-hogging. One of my favorite things to do is get out and bush-hog at night and play around with my tractor.

I was out riding around one night, and I just got the idea for that song. I started singing the chorus in my head. I was supposed to write with Jim [the writer of "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" for Kenny Chesney] the next day.

I walked into his office, and I said, "Hey, man, do you feel like writing another tractor song?"

He just busted out laughing and said, "It's been about eight years since "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" ... I think I'm through!"

We sat down and wrote that song.

When you write songs, sometimes you just have a feeling that "this is going to be a hit song." I had that feeling with "Party Crowd," and I had that feeling with "Dust on the Bottle." When we wrote "Big Green Tractor," it just felt like, "Man, this song feels really great. It's special and it's different."

You just feel fortunate to be around when something like that happens. Songwriters, we just sit around there and wait for the ideas to come. Some days, it doesn't happen, and some days it does. That was just one of those days that I was lucky enough to be there when that one came up.

This story was originally written by Alanna Conaway, and revised by Angela Stefano.

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