ABC/Image Group LADan + Shay are not only starting 2019 at the top of the chart with “Speechless,” but the duo’s Shay Mooney also happens to have written Rascal Flatts‘ current hit, “Back to Life.”
Shay admits he had plenty of opportunity to pitch songs to Rascal Flatts, since he and Dan Smyers opened Flatts’ Back to Us Tour last summer.
“We’ve been out on the road with those guys,” Shay explains. “We were just playing different songs for them, and that one jumped out to ’em and they cut it, and it turned out really, really cool.”
Even though Dan isn’t a co-writer on the track, Shay still had plenty of help on “Back to Life.”
“That was a really cool thing to be a part of,” Shay recalls. “I wrote that with a few buddies of mine.”
“Actually, Niko Moon was one of the writers on that song, and him and I knew each other from Atlanta,” he continues. “He’s actually in the band Sir Rosevelt with Zac Brown.”
Shay adds Niko is “just a super-talented writer,” adding, “We’ve been trying to write forever and finally got together, us and Cary Barlowe, and were able to pull that song together. It was a really fun write.”
And just like Dan + Shay’s hit, “Speechless,” Rascal Flatts’ “Back to Life” was inspired by Shay’s wife, Hannah.
“You know, we both have wives that are way out of our league,” he smiles, “so any time that we get a chance to pour that into our music, we can’t help but do that for sure.”
Shay already has a pretty impressive track record with Rascal Flatts. He also co-wrote the trio’s 2016 #1, “I Like the Sound of That,” with “All About That Bass” hitmaker Meghan Trainor.
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