Story Behind the Song: Luke Bryan, ‘What She Wants Tonight’

In October of 2019, Luke Bryan released “What She Wants Tonight” as the second single from his 2020 album Born Here, Live Here, Die Here. Co-written by the country star at home with three ace tunesmiths, the song became Bryan’s 24th career No. 1 single in late March of 2020.

Below, Bryan shares the story behind “What She Wants Tonight” in his own words.

“What She Wants Tonight” is a song that I co-wrote with Ross Copperman, Jon Nite and Hillary Lindsey. That group of amazing songwriters, they came out to my house.

We didn’t have a title, but Ross had, like, a track going, and him and Jon Nite had worked on some melodic stuff. And then having Hillary in the room to kind of tell the girl’s perspective of what a girl wants to hear and what she doesn’t want to hear really made the song come together.

We created the title in the room, and I felt like it was gonna be a big, big song for me, and I was excited that we had written something that I was really proud of. Now, to get it out on radio and it’s a big hit for me, is pretty surreal.