"Death Row" is a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

song by American

singer

Thomas Rhett Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

, featuring

Tyler Hubbard Tyler Reed Hubbard (born January 31, 1987) is an American singer-songwriter, and musician, best known as a former member of the Nashville-based duo Florida Georgia Line. Hubbard, a native of Monroe, Georgia, had been involved with music since a ...

and

Russell Dickerson Russell Edward Dickerson (born May 7, 1987) is an American country pop singer-songwriter from Union City, Tennessee. Dickerson has released two albums through Triple Tigers. Both have accounted for four singles charting on Hot Country Songs an ...

. It was released on March 4, 2022, as a promotional single from Rhett's sixth studio album, '' Where We Started''. The song was written by Rhett, Ashley Gorley, and Zach Crowell, and produced by

Dann Huff Dann Lee Huff (born November 15, 1960) is an American record producer and songwriter. For his work as a producer in the country music genre, he has won several awards, including the ''Musician of the Year'' award in 2001, 2004, and 2016 at the Co ...

and Jesse Frasure. The song was inspired after the artists performed for men on death row.

Background

In 2019, Rhett, Hubbard, and Dickerson went to visit a men's prison in Nashville where they performed for about thirty people on death row during Christmastime. They were invited by their friend, Al Andrews, who does prison ministry. During the visit, one man sang "

Amazing Grace "Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 with words written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is an immensely popular hymn, particularly in the United States, where it is used for both ...

", which Rhett described as "a strange spiritual experience" that "put life into such a weird perspective" and reminded him of the fragility of life. Dickerson stated that the day changed their lives and described the experience as "humbling, raw and a total God moment." Hubbard said the experience was "extremely encouraging and eye-opening and fulfilling." Hubbard noted "We just wanted to serve and invest into these guys' lives, and it turns out it felt like we left there and they invested in our life." Shortly after their visit, Rhett was finishing up a co-writing session with Ashley Gorley and Zach Crowell when he brought up his experience visiting death row and they ended up writing a song about his experience. Rhett did not expect to put the song on one of his albums and said it was "terrifying" to put the song on ''Where We Started''. Of the songwriting experience, Rhett stated "For me, it was just a therapy session, and the only way I knew how to put into words what that day meant." Rhett sent the song to Hubbard and Dickerson to get their approval and to fact-check the experience. Later, family and friends encouraged Rhett to record the song, so he reached out to Hubbard and Dickerson, who agreed to sing on the song. In August 2020, Rhett, Hubbard, and Dickerson released video clips of the song on Instagram. The song was released on March 4, 2022, as the fifth single of the album.

Videos

The song and

lyric video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

were released on March 4, 2022. The lyric video, which was released on Rhett's YouTube page, features Rhett, Hubbard, and Dickerson playing guitar by themselves with superimposed lyrics. Rhett also released a video on his YouTube page titled "Death Row (Story Behind The Song)". In the video, Rhett describes their visit to death row, the impact that the visit had on him, and the process of writing the song.

Critical reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

criticized "Death Row" for its lyrics and Hubbard's vocals. Charley Conroy, in '' The Heights'' wrote that "Death Row" "includes Rhett's most striking lyricism and storytelling of any song on the album."

References

{{Florida Georgia Line 2022 singles 2022 songs Thomas Rhett songs Russell Dickerson songs Tyler Hubbard songs Songs written by Ashley Gorley Songs written by Thomas Rhett Songs written by Zach Crowell Song recordings produced by Dann Huff Big Machine Records singles Vocal collaborations Songs about death