Luke Bryan's new single "Love You, Miss You, Mean It" is hot off the presses, and through the track, Bryan paints a timeless love story. Though he didn't write the track, Bryan sees a lot of his own marriage in the song.
Taking to Instagram, Bryan opened up about the new single. He wrote that it's about the challenges of young love. Bryan met his future wife when they were both in college. He wrote, "My new song #LoveYouMissYouMeanIt is out now! The first time I heard the song I felt like so many people would relate to it because we've all said that phrase 'Love You, Miss You, Mean It.' And the fact that the song just talks about young kids falling in love and the challenges of moving off to college and then finally reuniting is kinda my story with Caroline. I hope y'all love it."
Just like in the track, things didn't work out initially for Bryan and his wife Caroline. Although he knew they had an instant connection, it took them years to work it out. "We met in college back in fall 1998. At a little bar called Dingus MaGee's in Statesboro, Georgia," Bryan told HuffPost in 2012. He explained to The Boot, "It took me eight seconds to figure it out and it took her about eight years to figure it out. I had to drink a lot before I could go talk to her, but I did. Somehow I managed to ease over there and somewhat be charming. It was one of those situations for me, it was like, 'Who is that and how do I go talk to her? And, yep, I'm going to marry that girl.'"
Luke Bryan Talks New Single
So maybe that's why, Bryan knew he had a hit on his hands when songwriter Ben Hayslip sent him the tune. The singer realized that he found his first new single.
"When I heard this [song] it was like, 'Stop the presses,'" he told Audacy. "We started playing it for people, playing it for the label and everybody was picking it as the first single, and here we are. I'm fired up to have it out."
Bryan just hopes fans are as enamored with the song as he is. "I hope the fans love the song,"he said. "I think the song is catchy enough right off the bat [and] 'Love You, Miss You, Mean It,' is something that we've heard said out there a lot... I'm sure a lot of them can relate to this story because so many people have had a relationship and then maybe broke up a little bit, gone to see the world, come back and the song is all about those."