What would “Whiskey Lullaby” have sounded like if Dierks Bentley was the one to record it instead of Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss? Or what if Blake Shelton had been the one who made “The House That Built Me” famous instead of Miranda Lambert? Neither scenario is a far-fetched idea — both almost happened!
Sometimes, a song is written with a particular artist in mind, but, for whatever reason, that artist decides to pass on it (for example, Jake Owen passed on the Shelton single “She’s Got a Way With Words” because he didn’t want his ex-wife to think it was about her); other times, an artist puts a song on hold, then decides it’s not quite the right fit after all. Either way, a number of country music’s best-known and most-loved songs almost sounded a whole lot different.
Scroll through the photo gallery below to learn more about some of the famous country songs that almost went to other artists: