This one’s going to be a tearjerker. Cole Swindell and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have a shared connection through the loss of their fathers, which was the subject of Swindell’s 2016 single “You Should Be Here.” 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 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.” The power of country music. Well all these years later, Cole finally decided to take that shared experience with Dale Jr. and turn it into a song. 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” In teasing the song, Swindell recalled that meeting with Junior and wishing that his dad could have been there – while knowing that he saw it all from where he was: “This song is about the night I met Dale Jr.. I wish my dad could’ve been there for it but I have no doubt he saw it all and was smiling down. This one is special.” And Dale Jr. shared his appreciation for the song too: “What a cool way to honor our dads. It’s that unique club that connected us in the first place. Appreciate your friendship pal and look forward to catching up soon.” What a cool way to honor our dads. It's that unique club that connected us in the first place. Appreciate your friendship pal and look forward to catching up soon. https://t.co/pqDm9G15Do — Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) June 6, 2025 Probably gonna need to break out the tissues when this one drops.The post Cole Swindell Teases New Tearjerker About Meeting Dale Earnhardt Jr., Inspired By Their Shared Bond Over Losing Their Fathers first appeared on Whiskey Riff.