It was the third week of March 2023, the morning we wrote Grandma’s Ring. We sat inside a beautiful stone cabin on a pond in Kingston Springs, Tennessee, just 25 minutes away from Nashville’s “Music Row.” Parker, Casey, and Chase—three of my favorite people to write songs with—were there on the same property where I had written many songs before (Roulette on the Heart, How It Looks from Here, Heatin’ Up).
I started a fire in the fireplace inside the left wall of the room before they arrived, as I sat there going through my list of ideas on my phone, wondering what song we would write that morning once they got there. However, this song didn’t come from any ideas I had. Instead, it came to life through a passing comment I made as we all caught up on life during the first hour of our writing session.
As Parker (who helped me write Creek Will Rise and Baby I) was asking about Leah, I told her how we had been doing great and that Leah had plans to move to Nashville in August. By then, I already knew Leah was the one. In my mind, I thought that once she moved to Nashville, I would soon ask her to marry me. As we talked about that, they asked if I knew what kind of ring I would get Leah.
To which I responded, “She wants her Grandma’s Ring.”
After I said it, it was Chase (Creek Will Rise, Heatin’ Up, Roulette on the Heart) who said, “Grandma’s Ring would be a really cool song to write.”
We all agreed. We started to wrap our heads around how we could write that title, and once someone (probably Chase) threw out the hook, “She’s got my heart in her back pocket, and I got her Grandma’s Ring in mine,” we knew we had a song.
In the first verse, I just started listing all the things I loved about Leah.
In the second verse, we tried to capture the emotions behind the decision.
And in the bridge, we painted a beautiful picture of what that moment would be.
The special thing about this song—something I didn’t even realize until writing this—is that, six months after that day in March, it was on that exact same property where I had built that fire and the song came to life that I ended up asking Leah to be my wife...
With her Grandma’s Ring.
-Conner
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