Dan + Shay Call ‘Say So,’ Their Tribute to a Departed Friend, ‘The Most Important Song That We’ll Ever Do’
Categoria: Musica
Billboard looks at the writing and recording process behind the country duo's poignant new single.
Por Billboard | 08/05/2026
Nashville’s music community was emotionally leveled on Jan. 30, 2025, when local Warner Chappell president/CEO Ben Vaughn died . The loss was palpable. Vaughn provided an understanding ear for creators going through hard times, and he was a cheerleader for the songwriters he worked with – including Thomas Rhett, Rhett Akins, Chris Stapleton and Dan + Shay – as well as for executives at other companies with whom he had no financial interest. In the following months, Vaughn’s death certificate confirmed that he had died by suicide; as much as Music City music makers leaned on him, it was devastating to discover that Vaughn hadn’t reached out to his friends and loved ones. In the early going, the circumstances surrounding his passing were avoided publicly, in part out of respect for his children. But even after a memorial and several other commemorations, people needed to process it. On Dec. 17, Dan + Shay finally did in a format that Vaughn would have approved: They wrote a song. “This is,” says the duo’s Shay Mooney, “the most important song that we’ll ever do in our career.” Writing about their friend was not planned when Mooney, musical partner Dan Smyers and fellow songwriter David Hodges (“Because of You,” “See You Again”) met up at the home of Jimmy Robbins (“The Bones,” “half of my hometown”). No one had a specific agenda for the day – Christmas was coming, they were all planning their holiday breaks, and they started the day in a bit of year-in-review mode. They each knew at least two Music Row friends who had died that year, and they all realized they had unprocessed grief over Vaughn. “We were all feeling the heavy emotion in the room,” Smyers says. “It was just kind of cathartic to get to share those feelings and thoughts and emotions about Ben and share our mutual love for him. And it was like, ‘You know what? We owe it to Ben. We owe it to ourselves to at least see this one through to the finish line.’” That finish line wasn’t exactly clear. They didn’t have a title in advance, or a melody – just a desire, maybe even a duty, as songwriters to memorialize their friend. “We are the storytellers of culture, and I think our stories have a resonance, different than maybe laws that are passed or equations that are written,” Hodges says. “There is a truth in storytelling that feels – the older I get – more and more profound, because it gives you the context of the humanness around it.” Hodges and Robbins created a pulsing acoustic guitar foundation that made their tribute energetic instead of becoming a dirge. Since they didn’t have a title in mind, they just wrote what they felt, beginning with an opening line – “I got a call from a friend who don’t call very often” – that recounted the experience of hearing about Vaughn’s death. The rest of that verse would reflect the initial emotions and disbelief that most in the country music community had felt. “The whole song is pretty conversational,” Robbins says. “It’s not c