After riding “Buy Me a Boat” up the charts in 2015, Chris Janson now has the second bona fide hit of his career with “>”Holdin’ Her,” a tune that cracked the Top 25 on the Mediabase chart this week.
The heartfelt song, which Chris co-penned about his wife, Kelly Lynn, has taken on a life of its own during Chris’ shows by becoming the soundtrack to multiple “>marriage proposals as prospective grooms pop the question onstage and in the crowd. As Chris tells it, “Holdin’ Her” is almost the perfect marriage proposal song, with “a 99.9 percent approval rating,” but it’s that 0.1 percent that Nash Country Daily was interested in hearing about.
Check out what Chris had to say about his new Top 25—and climbing—hit, “Holdin’ Her.”
NCD: After “Buy Me a Boat” kind of put you on the map in 2015, you’ve had a stellar 2016. You toured with Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan, and now “Holdin’ Her” is your second Top 25 hit.
Chris: Man, it’s just been amazing. I had 25 songs recorded by other artists, too, in the past year, which was awesome. A lot of which aren’t singles, yet, maybe never will be, but at any rate, they are great album cuts. It was a great honor. I toured with Blake Shelton, too. Man, it’s just been very much a banner year, because “Boat” went into 2016 very fast. We did the Buy Me a Boat Tour and everything, and it still has a life of its own. Dude, you’ve pretty much capped it right there. The most important thing is “Holdin’ Her” is doing very well.
Top 25 sounds good, by the way. I just love hearing that. I’m grateful for country radio, so grateful for the fans, for supporting it. You know, “Holdin’ Her” has been a song that I wanted to come out for a long time, and the fact that it is doing so well is a huge blessing and a huge dream come true. It makes me proud to be a songwriter. It makes me proud to be an artist. It makes me proud to be, most importantly, a family man. To have that message out there and to be translating that with people and people translating it back to me is a pretty humbling experience.
You wrote “Holdin’ Her” in 2011 about your wife, who you’ve known for 10 years or so?
Yeah. I saw her for the first time about 11 or 12 years ago. We’ve been married for, going on eight years now, just about eight years. Dude, it’s been an amazing ride. It’s been an amazing journey. We’ve learned a lot together, and we’ve learned a lot about each other, and we are best friends, already. It’s a win-win situation. I found true love, man. Not a lot of people get to experience that. A lot do, but a lot don’t. I found it and I embrace it every single second I can.
Speaking of true love, “Holdin’ Her” has turned into kind of a wedding proposal hit, right?
Dude, which by the way is crazy, because it has, to answer your question. I didn’t expect that. I never wrote that with that kind of intention. However, people are getting married to it, I mean, I’m getting one to two proposals per show. Whether it’s in the crowd or on the stage, people are doing it. It’s really an unbelievable thing. It’s a great thing to see and watch, because it’s just right off the cusp. I would have never imagined that. I would have never thought about it. I don’t think of it that way. I just think of it as my story, and hopefully it works for somebody.
The cool thing about it is seeing the song grow as it has. It’s a lot of people’s story, man. There’s a lot of people—it’s refreshing to see—there’s a lot of people in the world who still believe in true love, and they still live in true love, and they have found it. No matter what avenue, whether they’ve come from a split background, a divorce, a split-up, whatever it may be, or maybe they just married once and forever, or maybe they’re not married, maybe they’re very much in love. “Holdin’ Her” translates with all walks of life, which has been a very cool and universal thing that. It has exceeded all of my greatest expectations.
With one to two proposals per show, what’s the success rate of those proposals?
We have a 99.9% approval rating [laughing].
That’s great, but what about that 0.1 percent?
I had one that was a little awkward, but I didn’t let it get awkward, thank God for that, because it could have gotten super awkward. However, the girl kind of like, I don’t think she came out and said “No,” but she definitely didn’t say “Yes.” It was just awkward, and I went ahead and congratulated them, like “Whoa, great, good job, wild, give them a round of applause folks, bye.” I mean, it was so awkward. The dude whispered in my ear, “She said no,” and I’m like, “Oh my God.” I just acted like I didn’t hear it, and congratulated them anyway. It’s one of those things. But, for the most part, man, people know what they’re doing, people are in love, or at least they think they are in love, and they love the song, so that’s good. At the end of the day, man, I’m just thrilled that it’s working for them, and that it touched their heart in some way.
I saw you play “Holdin’ Her” about a month ago at the Grand Ole Opry and you got a standing ovation, which I hear happens pretty regularly since you’ve played the Opry more than 150 times.
Yeah. I mean, literally, it is safe to say, yes. I say that with a humble heart, very unpretentiously. It’s crazy cool, man. It doesn’t surprise me in the fact that the song hits people in their heart, however, I will always be the guy who is honored, humbled and shocked that people would stand up for me. It’s crazy. It’s like what you dream about. I mean, I wanted to play the Grand Ole Opry more than anyplace I ever wanted to play when I came to this town, and I’ve gotten to do it, now, so many times, thankfully.
Before “Holdin’ Her” was on the radio, it was kind of being coined as the Opry song, which is really awesome. The Opry started saying that, and tweeting it, and things of that nature. Yeah, man. People are standing up for it, they’re giving me a standing ovation, and that’s just the power of a song. Take me out of it, take my name away from it, it’s just the power of music. I wrote that with James Otto, my good buddy and one of my oldest friends in this town. It’s just a really humbling thing.
Watch Chris’ performance of “Holdin’ Her” on the Grand Ole Opry below.
