Chris Young and Cassadee Pope Celebrate ‘Think Of You’
“Thank you guys so much for taking time out of your day for us to get to celebrate this," said Young.
On Tuesday afternoon, members of the country music industry gathered in the atrium at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, TN to celebrate the chart-topping Chris Young and Cassadee Pope song, “Think of You.”
The occasion marked Young’s 8th career No.1 (6th as a songwriter) and Pope’s very first No.1 song. With Young’s songwriter friends Corey Crowder and Josh Hoge in tow, the four spoke with nothing but high regards (and several jokes) for their colleagues and showcased why the single was so successful.
“I remember getting the demo in January of 2015 and I thought already that this is an incredible song, but more importantly I thought, holy crap, the girl gets time to sing. She gets a verse, she’s not just singing harmony. This is an actual duet,” remarked Pope, who was as excited as could be.
“Never did I ever think that something like this would actually happen from an acoustic guitar pull in 2014 in South Florida, which brings me to my next point. Chris Young, I am very excited that I have the mic right now and you don’t have any way to dismiss what I’m about to say because you’re the world’s worst compliment-taker of all time,” Pope added with a laugh. “You have no idea what you’ve done for me. For my spirit, my career. You chose me to sing this song with you when I may not have been the obvious choice at that time. You’ve completely given me that resurgence that I wasn’t sure I would get again. Yes, it’s been a massive dream to sing with you, you’re one of the best singers I’ve ever heard hands down, but even more importantly, you’ve become one of the best friends I could ever ask for. Your love and support has meant so much to me.”
The love-fest continued as both Crowder and Hoge made their ways to the stage.
“Cassadee, thank you for singing on this,” said Crowder, who not only co-wrote the track, but also co-produced the I’m Comin’ Over album. “Chris and I, funny story, when we were cutting this song, when we got Cassadee to sing, Chris and I were like little kids, just freaking out over Cassadee’s voice. We knew she was good, but God dang, she was so good. We were in their like I think that was a C sharp, holy cow! She’s just an incredible singer. What you hear on the record is what she sounds like. So thank you for being on this.”
“I just said earlier in a press meeting, you don’t often get to do this stuff with people that you’re actually best friends with, but we are best friends and now I’ve gotten to add a new friend in Cassadee to this,” added Hoge. “When you can sing like these two people, for those of you who don’t know, there’s no tricks that are done. They are that good, that’s how good of singers they are and it makes our jobs so much more fun. And also, I’m going to finish up we need to be talking about Chris because he’s one of the top artists in the whole game in my opinion. He’s probably, if not the best singers, for sure. My biggest honor in getting to write with him and do these things is he knows who he is and he doesn’t chart-chase. He’s not going to rap, he’s not going to make a pop song. He still wears cowboy boots, which that still does happen in country music. He knows who he is and that’s what means the most to me.”
Last to speak was Young, who was nothing but appreciative for the work it took to make the duet work.
“One of my favorite things about this song is having Cassadee Pope on it. This song would not be the same thing without her voice on it. She is absolutely one of the most stunningly talented vocalists that I’ve ever gotten to be around, much less get to work with,” he began. “This one was special and when we discussed it, duets are tough. I’ve said this a lot but it’s because it’s true. Duets are hard because there’s that one more extra piece that has to be correct to make the song what it’s supposed to be and I truly just look up and say thank you that we got this one right. For everybody in here, whether you work with me or work with Cassadee, or with one of these two guys behind me, two of my best friends, thank you guys so much for letting this song live and have its own space.”
“So, from the bottom of my heart, for this song and for everything that’s going on in my career, you change our lives on a daily basis and I’m just really lucky and blessed that I get to work with all of you,” he concluded. “Thank you guys so much for taking time out of your day for us to get to celebrate this.”
“Think of You” was the second single from Young’s Grammy-nominated album, I’m Comin’ Over. The track is one of the fastest rising singles of his career, hitting the No.1 spot in 15 weeks.
