When it came to recording his first duet, Cole Swindell wanted to be intentional with selecting his partner, and he had a feeling that Lainey Wilson was meant to be the one on “Never Say Never.”
The Georgia native reveals that “Never” was written years prior to him and Lainey taking it to #1 on the country charts, but notes that it was waiting for the right person to pitch the song to.
“I’ve always loved this song…but we knew it had to be a duet, so we knew we had to find the right person. I can’t even imagine anybody else singing on this song than Lainey,” Cole professes, noting that he already was a fan of her hit “Things a Man Oughta Know.”
“I was like, ‘This just makes sense,'” Cole recalls. “I didn’t know how our voices were going to sound together, any of that. I just knew I was a fan of her.”
In trusting that instinct, Cole sent the demo of the track to Lainey while she was on vacation in Mexico. Cole was hesitant at first to send it, but once he did, both singers knew it was going to be an important song in their careers.
“After I sent her the song, the next three minutes felt like three hours. I was waiting to see what she thought about it, but her response was, ‘I’m in. This sounds like a big song,'” he remembers. “She knows that as much as she’s thankful I asked her to be on it, I’m thankful that she agreed to do it. We’ve said from the minute we heard the final mix of it that this is gonna change things for both of us.”
“Never” is Cole’s 11th #1 single.
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