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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Says He Was “In His Feelings” Over New Cole Swindell Song Named After Him About Their Dads: “Means The World To Me”
Had him in his feelings.
Last week, Cole Swindell dropped a new song called “Dale Jr.,” which was inspired by the shared loss they both have of their fathers, and of course, it was the subject of Swindell’s 2016 single “You Should Be Here” as well.
Swindell’s father passed away unexpectedly in 2013, while the then-newcomer was out on tour after signing his record deal. And obviously Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows a thing or two about losing your father unexpectedly after Dale Earnhardt passed away in the 2001 Daytona 500. So when he heard the song, he decided to reach out to Cole – even though the two had never met:
The two discussed their first meeting on an episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast a few years ago:
“When I first heard it, you immediately connect the comparisons – he lost his dad, I lost my dad. He wrote the song about that, it absolutely word for word fits anyone who’s ever lost their dad, that song just plugs right into all the emotions.
I think even after all these years – you keep doing things in life, you keep having these milestones and these things happen and these people you meet that come into your life and you want your dad to know ’em, meet ’em, see ’em, experience it…
And so all the time that song remains relevant.”
And after the first few times Junior heard the song, he said he knew he “had to tell him” what his song meant to him – and he didn’t really care how Cole reacted.
“I didn’t care whether he was gonna receive that well or not, I was just like ‘This is hitting me hard and I need this man that wrote this song to know.’ So I reached out and he was like ‘Damn right, that’s exactly why I wrote it.’”
Dale also admitted that part of the reason he wanted to reach out to Cole was to offer him any advice he could give from his experience losing his own dad:
“I wanted to give you advice. I didn’t know how to, but I felt like if you needed some holes closed up in the search for some sort of closure, I was like ‘Man I really could help him.’”
For his part, Cole has always been a big NASCAR fan and says that his own dad was a big fan of Dale Earnhardt Sr.
So when he heard from Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of the blue about one of his songs because of the connection Dale Jr. felt to his own dad, Cole said that was one of the coolest moments of his career:
“For you to reach out, me being a huge fan – that was one of the coolest things of my career is Dale reaching out to me, and knowing that he’s reaching out because of his dad, which my dad was a fan of and I’m a fan of. And it’s just stuff like that, you can’t make that up. That’s as real as it gets.”
And of course, this new one hits extremely close to home for Jr.
The new track reflects on the night he met Dale Jr., and how they only talked about their fathers instead of their own wins in life:
“Last night I met Dale Jr.
Backstage at a show
We drank a few Bud heavies
And he said, ‘Man you know,
Who should be here right now
With his arm ’round my back?’
We didn’t talk about gold records
Or all of his checkered flags
Nah, we just did what missing dad sons do
Last night I met Dale Jr.
And all we talked about was Sr. and you”
Jr. previously shared how honored he was to be the subject of this song, and during a recent episode of his podcast with his wife Amy called Bless Your Hardt, he talked about how much it has touched him personally. A fan asked if he’d heard it yet and asked what he thought about it, and Jr. said that he heard the song before it came out because Cole wanted him to hear it and make sure he was good with it.
Jr. called it bad*** to have a country song written about him with his name in the title, and he also talked in the full episode about how much he wanted to make it about how cool their dad’s were and celebrate that, rather than make it about himself:
“Yeah, Cole told me about this song, he sent it to me in a text message and it was really cool that he would even do that. I always got a really big kick out anytime anyone ever mentioned Dad in a song, and never imagined that I would ever be any part of anything like that. But when he sent that to me, I was like, ‘I really didn’t know how to respond to it.’
Because it was, I don’t know, I just didn’t know what to say. I wanted to tell him that I was really happy about it, and that I was like holy ****, this popular country artist has written a song, entitled my name after it, clearly that’s bad***. He was like, ‘Are okay with this?’ I’m like, ‘Hell yes I’m alright with it.’ And I love how he connected our fathers, and you know, in my opinion, that’s kind of the focus of the song. It’s not so much me, it’s more it’s more about our dads and how cool they were. It’s like #1 on iTunes.
And I texted him, I got in my feelings the other day, and I was like, ‘Man, I’m telling you, I really am very thankful for this. And you’re just so talented, and you could’ve went…. You could’ve done anything else, and I’m so thankful that you shined a light on dad. And our friendship means the world to me, and I’m thankful that it means the world to you.’ So it’s been cool.”
I love the concept of the song, and it’s really cool to see how much it means to Dale because this is obviously something that is very near and dear to his heart. You can watch him talk about it here:
.@coleswindell‘s song ‘Dale Jr.’ has us all in our feelings. @DaleJr | @AmyEarnhardt pic.twitter.com/W6UrReRsQb
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) June 20, 2025
Listen to the song below.
“Dale Jr.”
The full podcast:
The post Dale Earnhardt Jr. Says He Was “In His Feelings” Over New Cole Swindell Song Named After Him About Their Dads: “Means The World To Me” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
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