Dustin Lynch Enlists MacKenzie Porter For Stirring Duet, ‘Thinking ‘Bout You’ [Interview]

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Dustin Lynch is giving a second life to a track first shared on his Tullahoma album, this time enlisting rising singer-songwriter MacKenzie Porter to complete the duet.

“Thinking ‘Bout You (feat. MacKenzie Porter),” co-written by Lynch, Andy Albert, Hunter Phelps, and Will Weatherly, tells the exciting and relatable tale of exes reconnecting via a phone conversation.

“The chorus was a bit of a one-take, lyrically, for me,” Lynch tells MusicRow of the “Thinking ‘Bout You” writing session. “I was just name-checking places that people have ended up or I’ve done life at through the years. There’s definitely a personal connection to the lyric of the song.”

The duet originally appeared as a collaboration on Tullahoma with Lauren Alaina. When Alaina wasn’t available to be a part of the single release, Lynch put a call out to the country music community for submissions for the part from up-and-coming female artists.

“I had my team remove all the names from the submissions and just number them so I wouldn’t be persuaded based on if I knew who it was, what camp they’re a part of, what they look like. On my first listen I ended up pointing to file number two or whatever it was. Two weeks later, I’m still listening through and keep coming back to it. It ended up being MacKenzie Porter,” Lynch explains. “We all gravitated to her performance, and I think there’s reason for that.

“For me it was an opportunity to reach down and lift a new artist up, I take pride in hopefully shining a little bit of light, if we have some success with ‘Thinking ‘Bout You,’ on MacKenzie’s career.”

The music video, directed by Justin Nolan Key, plays off the phone conversation story line, with Lynch and Porter assuming the roles of a former couple reminiscing over the phone.

YouTube video
“I have a gut feeling that this was a special song, a career song for me. You don’t get those feelings often, at least I don’t,” Lynch says. “With my experience, doing this long enough, I’ve got a pretty good gauge whenever we get one that’s raising it’s hand and this one seems to be doing that. Hopefully I don’t mess my streak up.”
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