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Small Town Scandal: Why Tracy Lawrence’s “Time Marches On” Caused A Major Problem With His Family
Gotta love some small-town drama.
As a key member of the traditional scene that was still alive and well in the 90s, Tracy Lawrence remains, ’til this day, one of the prominent members. With nine #1 hits, four certified-platinum albums, two ACM Awards and an additional CMA Award for Vocal Event of the Year in 2007 for “Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” the 57-year-old singer/songwriter has consistently flown under the radar when you take a look back at his career years later.
When talking about Lawrence, it’s hard not to mention smash hits such as “Sticks and Stones,” “Alibis,” “Paint Me a Birmingham” and the aforementioned “Find Out Who Your Friends Are.” With that being said, however, there’s no denying that “Time Marches On” has become his signature song over the years.
Released on March 18, 1996, as the second single off the album of the same name, “Time Marches On” was an immediate hit for Lawrence. Written independently by legendary songwriter, Bobby Braddock, the track would go #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart for three weeks, just three months after its release in June 1996.
Since then, it’s been his most successful single in the streaming age, currently having over 184 million on Spotify alone and even becoming a bit of a trend on TikTok on and off throughout the years due to the iconic second verse where Lawrence essentially airs out all the dirty laundry of the fictional family.
“Sister’s using rouge and clear complexion soap
Brother’s wearin’ beads and he smokes a lot of dope
Mama is depressed, barely makes a sound
Daddy’s got a girlfriend in another town”
As it turns out, the success and seemingly authentic nature of the fictional song caused Lawrence a whole lot of issues shortly after its release.
Appearing on the always-entertaining Big D & Bubba Show last week, the “Texas Tornado” singer sat down to talk about everything ranging from his harrowing experience getting shot during a mugging in Nashville to his “Mission: Possible Turkey Fry & Benefit Concert,” which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and raised $355,000 back in November.
Early in the episode, the trio discussed “Time Marches On.” First, Lawrence would reveal that he was first drawn to the song simply due to the shock value of the “smokes a lot of dope.”
“The strangest thing about this song for me, I really cut it because I love the line, ‘Smokes a lot of dope.’ And I thought that was a great shock factor to it.”
However, Lawrence would note that the popularity of the song had some consequences. Given that he was raised in the small town of Foreman, Arkansas, which only had a population of around 1,100 when he was growing up, he was the talk of the town. And due to the incredibly funny yet specific lyrics of the track, many thought that 1) Lawrence wrote the song himself and 2) it was completely autobiographical.
In turn, his father, who was the vice president of a small bank in town, received a lot of backlash thanks to the line, “Daddy’s got a girlfriend in another town.”
It got so bad, in fact, that Lawrence would note that it caused him “a lot of personal struggles:
“There are pieces of the song that I didn’t take into consideration, you know? I grew up in a town of about 1,100 people. My dad was the vice president of the small bank there, and this song caused daddy a lot of stress in his life because the line of the song is ‘Daddy’s got a girlfriend in another town.’ I never took into consideration how many people would think I wrote that song [like] it was autobiographical.
And it cause him a lot of personal struggles because people thought it was about my dad. It’s not true at all… When that song became such a massive hit, I never took into consideration when I heard it for the first time what an impact it would have on my family.”
As mentioned earlier, the story undoubtedly has a happy ending thanks to the continued success of the track thirty years later. If anything, it’s another clear indication that songwriters should be credited much more for their work. If that was the case, Lawrence wouldn’t have even been in the situation in the first place.
Watch the full episode here:
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