As many stop and reflect on this Memorial Day about the sacrifices that the military make – one of the songs that a lot of people turn to is Tim McGraw‘s “If You’re Reading This.”

Tim premiered the song during the 2007 ACM Awards in Las Vegas – after his performance the crowd in tears shot to their feet for a standing ovation.

Since then, the track has held a special place for many people who not only relate the lyrics, but also…unfortunately have lived the story.

Tim shares the story behind “If You’re Reading This,” “Brett and Brad Warren and myself wrote that song. I remember I was on an airplane, and I think it was a Time magazine article – and it was early on during the Iraqi war – and there was a story called ‘If You’re Reading This.’ And it was about soldiers writing letters and puttin’ ‘em in their pockets in case something was to happen. I’d read a few of the letters that they had written home of soldiers who had gotten killed in action.  And when I got home, I called Brett and Brad and they came over, and we sat in the living room and spent a day and wrote that song. And it impacted us when we finished writin’ it, but you’re so close to it when you write it. So, our nanny at the time, Jojo, was at the house, and we asked her to come in. We said, ‘Will you come in and listen to this song and see if it’s as good as we think it is?’ And then she just started crying when she heard it, so we felt like that we really had something special.”

Photo Credit: Robby Klein