Bitter song about Nashville turns into hit

"What's a Rascal Flatt?"

That's what D. Vincent Williams asked Phillip White when he heard who was going to record the song they'd written together. They'd know soon enough. "I'm Movin' On" became an unlikely country hit in 2001. Williams and White told the story behind "I’m Movin’ On” to Bart Herbison, executive director of the Nashville Songwriters Association International.

So I wanna break this down into sort of three parts. The first part is how the song gets written. ...

DW: Yeah, well, basically I started this song, my bitter Nashville song, so it was the second verse of the song, just the second verse piece of music, and it was all about leaving town. "I’m leaving this place and nothin’s different." It was kinda bitter and what have you. ...

Well, you were going through marital changes, you come to this town and I mean, it’s not what you came here for. (White) had the lyric, and you (Williams) had the melody. You feel that crossroads of emotion in this song.

DW: When it happened, because the lyric that came up was interesting because I was messing around (on piano), we were rescheduling (our session) we would rewrite another day. (White) was like, "Dave, don’t worry about it. You’ve had a long night." As he was getting his book out, I was tinkering with that little melody. And he says, "Dude, that’s good, play that." And I said, "That’s my bitter Nashville song." And I sang a little bit of that second part about leaving this place, about Nashville. And he says, "Man, that’s good, hang on, play that again. ... We should do that." And I said, "I don’t know." He said, "Trust me, play that again." And his eyes just all of the sudden lit up and he goes, "I got it." I played again and he recited the first verse.

What did you have?

PW: The first verse, which is, "I dealt with all my ghosts, faced all my demons, finally content with a past I regret ... ." But I never found a title.

DW: And it was interesting because it fit the music perfectly. And we were like, Oh my god.

PW: And the weird thing is, when you hit that ... I’ll never forget when you hit that bridge, we wrote that song in 15 minutes.

DW: Yeah, it was quick

... But the publisher, was it (White's) that went, “Nah, I think you need to go back.”

PW: Yeah, he wanted us to rewrite part of it, and I think that was the first time in my career where I was like, "No, it’s right."

Eventually get a call. Well, how’d that call go saying that they were cutting it? What did you say?

DW: Well, I got a call from Phillip. Ya know, Phillip and I just met so we were just getting to know each other and all of a sudden — it was about a week — and I get a phone call, cause I was actually moving and leaving to go back home and (White) calls me, “Hey! What’s up dude?” And I was like, “Who’s this?” and he says, “It’s Phillip! Phillip White.” And I was like, “Hey Phillip, how are you doing?” and he says, “Man, we got a cut!” I went, “Really?” He says, “This Rascal Flatt or Scruggs or something, I don’t know.” And I said, “Who is Rascal Flatts?” That was a different time.

PW: He said, “What’s a Rascal Flatt?”

DW: That’s right!

So this thing’s coming up on 20 years this song being born. You write it in ‘97 and it’s not recorded for a while.

DW: In ‘98 is when it was actually written. ... It was released as a single in ’01.

I think the greatest radio personality ever Gerry House – he just did something extraordinary.

PW: Yeah, he played (the song) on the radio. I get a call. I forget who called me, might’ve been Paul or somebody called and said, “Hey, Gerry House is playing your song on the radio.”

DW: It might’ve been Devon (O'Day).

PW: So I turned on the radio and it was the end of the first time playing through, and he played it seven or eight times in a row because the phones lit up, and after those phones lit up and it got that kind of reaction, they decided to go with it as the last single of that album.

DW: Not right off the bat. It took a little longer.

PW: They tested it.

Well, they were right.

DW: It was the No. 1 tested song in their history.

 About the series

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, we will release a video interview with a songwriter about his or her work each week.