"Ask Me How I Know" was released as the second single from Garth Brooks' 2016 album Gunslinger, following "Baby, Let's Lay Down and Dance." We all know Brooks as a country music superstar who has won multiple CMA Awards, but by 2017 he had spent a decade without a No. 1 hit. "Ask Me How I Know" marked the first time Brooks had topped the charts since "More Than A Memory" in 2007.
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Nashville singer-songwriter Mitch Rossell hadn't initially meant for the song to go to Brooks. After writing it in one day, he intended to record it himself. But he had pitched some songs to Brooks for his 2014 album Man Against Machine and while none of his songs made the cut on that album, Brooks reached out to Rossell for some help with Gunslinger. Rossell told Taste of Country that he felt inspired to write the song due to his personal issues with pushing people away, one of the central messages of the song.
"It came out straight from the soul and the heart of me always being that guy in relationships that had to have control and power, and wouldn't let anybody close enough to ever really love somebody. I pushed a couple of really good girls away because of that quality. It came from a very real place for me."
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Luckily for Brooks, he did record the country song on his own label, Pearl Records. The release of the single came at the same time as the news that he would perform at South by Southwest and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. He reached No. 1 on the US Country Airplay Billboard chart in 2017. The song is easily one of the most popular recent Garth Brooks songs.
We can look back on the song as a big comeback for Brooks on country radio. And he hasn't even came close to stopping. Since "Ask Me How I Know," Brooks has also released the rowdy "All Day Long" and the country star Blake Shelton duet "Dive Bar," from his forthcoming album Fun.
"Ask Me How I Know" Lyrics:
You're stubborn as they come, you'll never settle down
You'll always be the one who doesn't stick around
You make all the rules, you're set in your ways
You gotta have your freedom, you gotta have your space
But one day you'll meet the girl you swore you'd never find
Start feeling things you never felt and spending all your time
Trying to figure out how she got this hold on you
And when you start to fall, you'll hold onto your pride
Start building up your walls and ever let her get inside
You'll push her away 'cause that's all you know how to do
And then she'll leave and you won't beg her not to go
Ask me how I know
Go on and shake your head and tell me that I'm wrong
Say, "I'm just another fool and this is just another song"
But I know how you are 'cause I know how I am
And I'd give anything to go back and try again
'Cause one day you'll meet the girl you swore you'd never find
Start feeling things you never felt and spending all your time
Trying to figure out how she got this hold on you
And when you start to fall, you'll hold onto your price
Start building up your walls and ever let her get inside
You'll push her away 'cause that's all you know how to do
And then she'll leave and you won't beg her not to go
Ask me how I know
And you best put this song on repeat
Maybe then you won't end up like me
'Cause one day you'll meet the girl you swore you'd never find
Start feeling things you never felt and spending all your time
Trying to figure out how she got this hold on you
And when you start to fall, you'll hold onto your price
Start building up your walls and ever let her get inside
You'll push her away 'cause that's all you know how to do
And then she'll leave and you won't beg her not to go
Ask me how I know, 'cause man I know
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This article was originally published on November 1, 2019.
