Story Behind the Song: Breland + Keith Urban, 'Throw It Back'

"Throw It Back" is the third Breland / Keith Urban collaboration to be released, but it — like "Out the Cage" and "Soul Food," both from Urban's 2020 album The Speed of Now, Part 1 — dates back to the pair's first writing session. Breland drove from Atlanta, Ga., to Urban's Nashville-area home, arriving bright and early one Friday morning, as Urban recalls, ready and eager to get to work.

When the country superstar asked the rising star to share what had been inspiring him lately, and what he'd been working on, Breland dug up the demo of a chorus — an early version of what listeners hear in "Throw It Back." It was just something that Breland wanted Urban to hear for inspiration, though; he didn't expect his fellow artist to offer to turn it into a song with him.

Below, Breland shares the story behind "Throw It Back" and his relationship with Urban, in his own words.

Yeah, this was the first one [we wrote together]. When we first met, he was like — and this is pretty common in writes, when you're meeting someone for the first time — "Show me where you are. What are you coming up with? What has been inspiring you?"

And so I was just playing him some demos that I had. And I only had the chorus on it, and I'd been sitting on that chorus for a couple months, but I wasn't playing it for him with the idea of him getting on it, I was literally just playing him a bunch of songs that I was messing with. And he was like, "Oh, this one ... I want to be on this."

And I was like, "Okay ... You know, this song is kind of ... it's a little suggestive." The phrase "throw it back" is a little sensual, at least ... There's some allusions to twerking in this song. And he was like, "Really?" And I was like, "Yeah," and he was like, "Well, I like it." I was like, "Alright, cool."

You know, he's such a — he's one of the only artists I've ever met that he does not care at all what something sounds like or what box it fits in ... He's down to try it if he likes it; if it catches his ear, he wants to be a part of it in some way. And it was a really organic collaboration, and the first of of many — we've written a bunch since then ...

It feels like a summer record. It feels unlike any other songs that I've heard and unlike anything that I've heard Keith on, and so to be able to have him on one of my songs after being on one of his just feels like a really natural next step for our relationship and collaboration.

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