Chris Young Reflects On 20 Years in Music—And Why He Still Has More To Say with New Album, ‘I Didn’t Come Here To Leave’

When Chris Young told himself that he was going to take a three-month hiatus following the success of his previous album, that didn’t happen. Instead, the country music superstar, 40, continued to stay busy writing a collection of songs that prove his staying power with the release of his newest project, I Didn’t Come Here To Leave.

Out today (Friday, Oct. 17), via his new label home Black River Entertainment, the 14-track offering, which includes the Grammy-nominated vocalist’s current single, “‘Til The Last One Dies,” marks the start of a brand-new chapter for Young following his exit from RCA Nashville.

“I am very, very excited about this record and for a lot of reasons, mainly the level of care that’s been given to this album. Not that any of my other albums in my career haven’t had that same level of care, it’s just that there’s something special about this one,” Young told Music Mayhem and other media during a recent round-robin. “I don’t know what it is, it just makes me happy. I love going back and listening to it.”

Chris Young ‘I Didn’t Come Here To Leave’ Album Art

With topics ranging from love and light-hearted good times to more serious, hard-hitting subject matter, I Didn’t Come Here To Leave offers a healthy mix of heart-wrenching ballads and high-energy tracks that showcase the full raw emotional spectrum of Young’s artistry. Perhaps his most personal body of work to date, the global entertainer calls the result of I Didn’t Come Here To Leave “a God thing.”

“I don’t want to say this, and it be taken out of context, but it is sort of a God thing,” Young acknowledged of the creative process behind the album. “It was like upstairs knew I needed this music, and I was just being pushed to create it.”

“I was like, I’m going to take January, February, and March off this year,” he recalled. “Nope, that did not happen…. It’s weird. I’ve been around for 20 years on record labels, but I still feel like I have more to say. This album, this new chapter—it’s proof of that.”

To bring his vision to life, Young worked alongside longtime friend and collaborator Andy Sheridan to co-produce the album. Instead of big studios and tight schedules, the two went into the project with a hands-on approach.

“I drove my gear down to his house in Antioch [Tennessee] and sang all the vocals there,” Chris Young recalls. “Normally, I do three or four passes. This time, I spent a whole lot of time making sure we got it right, even if it was just one word. I’d say, ‘Let me do that again. I can do it better.’”

“I got to flex my creative muscles in a different way this time,” he notes of this album in comparison to previous projects like Famous Friends, I’m Comin’ Over, and The Man I Want to Be. But, even through a meticulous thought-process, some of the material on I Didn’t Come Here To Leave came together quickly. Such is the case with the album’s title track.

“We wrote it in 45 minutes,” Young confirmed.

The laid-back, breezy tune finds the Tennessee native singing about staying late at a local bar, but the tune has a deeper meaning — hence the reason for it serving as the album’s title.

“I also thought it was a statement of sort of where I’m at in my career, which is weird if you think about my age compared to some other people that got started at least on a label much later than me. They’re older than me,” Young said. “So it is very interesting to look at it, but I think that being around for 20 years on record labels, I think that’s indicative of that. And it is sort of me just looking at everybody going, ‘I still have more to say.’”

“Just Keep Livin” could be hailed as one of the more emotionally-charged moments on the record. Written alongside Chris DeStefano, Jason Duke, and Josh Hoge, about his stepfather Michael Harris’s cancer diagnosis, the song required more than just approval from his team; it needed the OK from family — specifically his stepdad. “I called him and said, ‘Old man, I put this on the album.’ He said yes. But I had to ask his permission. It was that personal. I wrote it about his battle with cancer,” Young says, before sharing the story behind how he found out about his stepdad’s diagnosis. “I remember he looked at me, and the very first thing that he said was just basically telling me my mom and my sister that he had cancer. And he walked out of the room.”

“My sister and my mom cried, and I didn’t. I was like, ‘All right, I’m the other man in the room. I got to be locked in.’ They leave. He came back, and I was like, ‘Dad, are you okay?’ I was like, I called him old man. But I asked him if he was all right, and he looked at me, and he was like, ‘Son, when I had the heart attack several years ago, they wheeled me back…They have one person look at you and say a prayer, whatever God you believe in, in case you don’t wake up. And he goes, ‘I prayed about you and your mom and your sister, and I knew you were going to be okay.’ I felt a weight lift off of me.”

Chris Young; Photo Courtesy of John Shearer

Another more sentimental tune on the album is “I Hope It’s Okay,” a love song that serves as a fitting choice for wedding dances, but also offers a twist on asking a parent for a woman’s hand in marriage. “Those are two of the songs that’ll make you cry—and I think that’s important for a country album,” Young said. “I think you have things that make you happy, make you want to cry, laugh, and text your parents or your kids and say, ‘I love you.’”

Much of the album was co-penned, but three outside cuts belong on the record. They include “Til The Last One Dies,” by Ben Hayslip, Seth Mosley, and Jordan Walker, “Tin Roof” with credits going to Ty Graham, Adam Wood, and Trenton Michael Fisher, and the Doug Johnson and Steve Diamond-penned “What Would You Take.” As someone who’s never shied away from recording a great tune he didn’t write, Young says he’s proud of those song choices.

“I’m never afraid of outside cuts,” Young says, referencing previously released hit tracks like “Lonely Eyes” and “Who I Am With You.”

“When Doug Johnson played me ‘What Would You Take,’ I was like, ‘You should have played me this first,” he laughs, recalling how Johnson played four songs for him at the time. “It was meaningful. There are songs that are party songs on this record, there are love songs on this record, and there are deeply impactful songs on this record. That one definitely falls into the latter category.”

One of the more uptempo tracks on I Didn’t Come Here To Leave is the beer-guzzling, “I Feel A Cold One Coming On,” showcasing a side of Young that’s made for large arena shows with an audience that sings every lyric back to him.

“‘Til The Last One Dies,” meanwhile, finds Young singing about the kind of unconditional love that shaped him.

“Everyone says me and my dad look alike, and I always say, ‘That’s weird. He’s my stepdad.’… But that’s the man who raised me,” Young shared. “He proposed to my mom on Valentine’s Day, had me and my sister come downstairs, and got our permission to marry my mom. The guy that has been through a whole lot and he’s still the most likable guy, even if he’s gruff and is like a man’s man, he loves my mom absolutely to death and loves me and my sister as well.”

In a career spanning over two decades, it’s no question that Young has achieved massive success. He has secured 14 No. 1 hits, earning over 9 billion streams. He’s a proud member of the Grand Ole Opry and has scored countless awards and accolades. But as he logs his 10th studio album with I Didn’t Come Here To Leave, one has to ask: what keeps him motivated?

“When I went in and had the meeting with Black River [Entertainment], I had a bunch of other meetings scheduled, my deal at RCA was up,” Young shared, answering the question. “I got to play free agent… they proceeded to just kill me with kindness. And I was just like, oh, this is different.”

Chris Young; Photo Courtesy of Black River Entertainment

“They had a printout of all the nice things people had said about me on the internet,” he laughs. “Which, power move. We always only look at the negative stuff. But it was really cool. And I was like, okay, this is different. I like it here….. So I think that’s a big part of why I feel not necessarily reinvigorated, because I’ve always enjoyed making music, and I’ve been lucky to do so. There aren’t many people who get to do this as long as I’ve been able to do it. It’s more so from a perspective of this album just sort of came together, and in such a cool way that it just feels right. And I’ve used this quote, and I don’t mean to belabor the point, but art’s never finished or completed. It’s only abandoned. I feel like this record was complete.”

Beyond the music, the album’s release carries even deeper significance. It coincides with the anniversary of Young’s induction into the Grand Ole Opry.

“We didn’t do that on purpose,” he explains, “but I am honestly really happy that it did happen that way. Being a member of the Grand Ole Opry is greatly important to me, mainly because a lot of my country music knowledge from the past and what I ended up doing in the future came from my grandfather and sitting at his house, he had a little music room, he played piano and played guitar and listened to a lot of Marty Robbins records with him when I was at his house. So I’ve always had a deep respect for the history of country music, and it’s one of the reasons that I get excited every single time I walk in that door and I look to the left and my name is still there.”

What’s next for Young? His first-ever holiday tour, “It Must Be Christmas – An Acoustic Evening with Chris Young.”

“Christmas is one of my favorite times of year….There’s a reason Alan Jackson was a guest on one of the songs that I did on my first Christmas record. There’s not a second Christmas record yet… but I’m just saying, there might be something in the works,” he teases. “We’re doing what I call a Christmas sandwich—holiday music at the beginning, Christmas music at the end, but in the middle there will be some of the songs that people normally hear at my shows.”

Tickets for the 15-date headlining Christmas-themed shows are on sale starting Friday, August 8, at 10:00 a.m. local time at chrisyoungcountry.com.