ENTERTAINMENT

Cole Swindell tells dad: 'You should be here' in song

Cindy Watts
USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee
Country music singer Cole Swindell will release his new single "You Should Be Here" Monday.

July 13, 2013: the day Cole Swindell called his dad William and told him that he had signed his a record deal with Warner Music Nashville. One of the singer’s friends took video of the call and the elder Swindell can be heard laughing and delivering his congratulations.

William Keith Swindell died unexpectedly about six weeks later when a truck he was working on fell on top of him. His son was in the midst of the busiest time in his professional life – and since then, has gone on to chart four No. 1 hits, be crowned the Academy of Country Music’s New Artist of the Year and play stadiums with Kenny Chesney and Luke Bryan.

With the loss of his dad and his own career successes in mind, Swindell penned his new single “You Should Be Here” with Ashley Gorley in the parking lot at one of Bryan’s stadium shows."You Should Be Here" can be heard starting Monday on country radio, the same day it will be available from digital retailers.

“From start to finish, it was one of those things where we both had chills when we were writing it,” Swindell recalled. “It felt so real to me, but everybody can relate. I’ve been able to experience so many things since I’ve had my record deal. I just know that he was proud, but I know that these moments - if he was there and could share it with me - it would be even better. This song is kind of my every moment.”

Lyrics include: “You should be here/ You’d be loving this/ You’d be freaking out/ You’d be smiling, yeah/ I know you’d be all about what’s going on right here right now.”

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Swindell said “You Should Be Here” isn’t just for people who have experienced the loss of a loved one, but for parents whose children are away at college, the families of service members deployed overseas – anyone who is missing someone special.

“There’s all kinds of ways people can’t be together,” Swindell said. “I think this song can touch people and I want them to have it for the holidays. If they can’t be with the ones they love, I hope this song makes them think of them.”

Swindell also shot a video for the song that features his family in Georgia and includes emotional footage of the first time he returned to his father’s grave. Video of many of the moments he wishes his dad could have seen are interspersed.  Swindell said shooting the video was the hardest he had cried.

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“I wanted this song and video to be as powerful as it could,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to release a song that could actually touch someone and help them through a tough time. I was thinking, ‘Wow, this is that song.' Getting to shoot this video, I was watching a rough cut of it, I started thinking, 'Maybe this song is to help me.' ”

The video debuts Monday at yahoo.com.