SKOAL RING: "I had John and Vicky out and my boyfriend cooked a big pasta dinner, cracked a bottle of wine and sat write here and wrote Skoal Ring before dinner, and stopped and ate a little dinner and came back here and knocked out ‘All Jacked Up’ and called it a day. Which, to be honest with you, is the pattern we've gotten into. I guess just because we're such good friends, we know each other so well -- we did the same thing yesterday ... I tell you what, one of the funniest things that happened on Skoal Ring, when we were writing it I'd never seen John Rich laugh as hard as he laughed while we were writing it. We were sitting there writing a song about tobacco, first of all, about Skoal, so I just loved it immediately because it sounded so Loretta. It sounded so old and real and to the point and country to the bone, you know? And of course, it should, like I said, we're singing about Skoal. When we got to the second verse and we're trying to figure out ... we came up with I've always been a Bandit Girl and he's a Long Cut Man. And we got stuck there for awhile, and I remember that for the next 15 or 20 minutes we just sat there and tried to figure out what the next line was. I remember saying something about, 'I'm Bandit Girl, he's Long Cut Man, those are so ... different. The idea is that we still get along even though we have different-colored cans. When I said that, John almost fell out of his chair backwards. I said, ‘What's so funny about that?' And he said, 'Gretchen, that is so truly you to think that we could be so different because we chew different flavors of Skoal. That's the most redneck thing I've ever heard in my life.' But we've gotta use it because that's true. That's really the way you feel. That's how you think.' So we did." ... "Yes, I use Skoal. But I'm berry blend, pouches, so it's not loose in my mouth. It's more of a girly flavor, I guess. So I guess I can be feminine!" (laughs)
HE AIN'T EVEN COLD YET: "That was one that, you know, when you're an artist and getting ready to make records a lot of people come and pitch you songs. I listened to a lot. Anything that gets personally handed to me, I listen to. I don't just look at the publishing company or the songwriters. I listen to it. Because you never know when you're gonna strike gold. I'm just so glad we found these songs that sound so old. Because I don't think these songs are being written today."
ONE BUD WISER: "Now this one I didn't write. This one was John and Vicky. (Mock sobs) They write a lot of songs without me, and I wish they wouldn't. (busts out laughing). I tell you what, though. She and John come up with those titles. It was probably John's title: One Bud Wiser. And on the first record Vicky's was, When It Rains, I Pour. She had that one. It's just mind-boggling that no one has written it before. Songwriters just rack their brains trying to find that catch phrase ... How those two have never been written. I just don't get it."
POLITICALLY UNCORRECT: "Merle (Haggard) sang on it. That's a song that's been floating around Nashville for 10 years, and no one has ever cut it. I heard it and have had it on hold since the last record. It was written by the same woman who wrote ‘Chariot,’ Leslie Satcher. What I love about this song is that I when listened to it the first time, I got the sense that, that is just like the perfect political stance, as far as any musical artist. We don't wanna talk about politics. We never want to get involved in that whole thing. I kinda follow Montgomery-Gentry's lead on that, they've got the greatest answer. 'What the hell are you asking me that for? I'm a country singer.' That's what I say. (laughs). But, for a political song, when you finish listening to that song, you get the sense that this girl is just for everything. And that's just what's so cool about it. I'm for everything. I guess that means I'm politically uncorrect. I'm for everything. That's what I love about it. I think it's funny. Merle's twisted the lyric around a little bit, his pieces, to suit him a little better. I can tell you the day I hear it on the radio, that's going to be one of the highest points of my life, I'm tellin' ya. It's un-believable, just the feeling that overcomes me as soon as his vocal kicks in on that, it's like 'Oh, my God, I can't believe that's him.' "