Inside the Mind of Dustin Lynch: Songwriting Secrets Revealed

If you have ever wondered what inspired Dustin Lynch, now is your chance to find out. Lynch isn’t just co-hosting Backstage Country with Elaina Smith for a whole week; he’s taking fans straight into the stories, heartbreaks, and funny anecdotes that inspired his songs.

Lynch described his 2025 song, “Easy to Love,” as kind of autobiographical. It’s also a track he co-wrote with some big names in Nashville. Smith asked whose idea it was. Lynch said, “The idea was actually already there in place. We just kind of had the melody and a little bit of the chorus lyrically. And it's like, ‘Man, let's make this about a troubadour, a guy that's just kind of riding the wave of life.’ And I just leaned into where I'm at right now, with my life kind of taking an interesting, crazy, fun turn with new music that we're doing on top of the country music.”

There’s no talking about Lynch’s biggest hits without discussing “Where It’s At,” especially the iconic “Yep, yep” line in the chorus. The singer-songwriter chuckled, “I didn't realize how big a part of the song that was going to be. It's really what the crowd grabs onto. I thought it was a little bit goofy when I first heard the song. I had that song in a folder of when I'm putting the album together and just songs I like, and it was there for probably the longest of. I like this song, but you know what's the thing? It was one of those deals where in the studio we found the magic. The demo was cool, but when we were in the studio and those guitar lines meshed together, it was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is special.’”

He added, “And it went from a song that I thought was just going to be on the album to what went on to be the lead single and our first number one hit.”

Lynch’s collaboration with MacKenzie Porter, “Thinking ‘Bout You,” is also one of his tracks that they have performed on different shows. Smith asked if there was any performance of the songs that was his favorite. Ever the charmer, Lynch replied, “Gosh, anytime Mackenzie's on stage with me is a favorite. I hope we get to run it back again soon. It's one of those like pinch me moment type songs. They're not easy to come by, and we've been blessed to have a couple that have been that big.”

Lynch went on to praise his duet partner, “She's such a joy to be around. I would say the award show, CCMAs (Canadian Country Music Association), was pretty dang cool because it's back in her homeland. I was honored to be up there with her. We had a blast bringing it for all of Canada that night. So that was really cool, just because it was kind of home turf for Mac, and to get to join her on that was really nice.”