I’ve Never Been Here Before

ORIGIN STORY

Oof. This song.

On June 3rd, 2016 I was put in a writing session with an amazing songwriter named Andrew Dorff. He wasn’t in the writers room when I got there. I found him out on a balcony smoking a cigar. He was cool and charming and self-possessed — in short, I liked him.

Eventually we sat down and started talking. He was still wearing aviator shades and he asked me about my life. I told him the truth: That I was lost. I was going through a breakup. I was excited about signing to a new label, but I was also confused and sad and anxious… I told him… I don’t know Andrew, I’ve never been here before.

He sat in silence for about 30 seconds. Processing everything that this stranger had just shared. And after this long pause. He just started talking:

Well what if we wrote a song about a guy who comes to town... Gets a rental car… Checks into the hotel… Maybe he gets his key from the owner or the owner’s daughter… He asks her… where’s a good bar around here? I’ve never been here before.

She sends him to a place down the street… It doesn’t even have a name… but it’s cool and he goes in and there’s an empty stool so he sits down… bartender comes over… super nice guy… says hey man, what you drinking? And our guy says I don’t know, what you like to pour? I’ve never been here before.

And then our guy just gets drunk… and he starts talking to the person next to him… a stranger… he starts saying what’s really going on… that he just broke up with a girl… that he hates this choice he made and misses her… that he doesn’t really want to exist anymore… He’s never been here before.

I was in shock. He had just clairvoyantly delivered a song in one fell swoop. I sat at the piano and started to hear the melody. We finished in two hours.

We parted ways. The thing about songwriting is… I only met Andrew this one time. So I can’t really say he was my friend. We were only getting to know each other. But we wrote this song. It’s a level of depth that some friendships never get to experience.

A few months later I was shocked to learn that Andrew had died. He had drowned in the Atlantic ocean. It was so horrible and tragic and Nashville mourned him. He was a magical songwriter. I got to witness it first hand.

Andrew helped me write a song to get through one of the hardest moments of my life… I will forever be grateful for him for that. I’m so grateful I get to finally share it with you all.