While driving on Memorial Day in 2011, songwriter Connie Harrington tuned into National Public Radio (NPR) and listened to an interview featuring a father talking about his late son who was a soldier. To honor his son’s memory, Paul Monti started driving his son’s truck.
A Moving Story Becomes a Country Song
As Harrington listened to Monti’s interview, she wanted to remember everything she could. While driving, she quickly jotted down notes as Monti told the story of his son, Jared, who lost his life in 2006 while serving in Afghanistan. He protected the lives of fellow soldiers one day while they faced heavy enemy fire. For his bravery, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Not only did Monti eventually found Operation Flags for Vets, which assists with putting flags on soldiers’ graves each Veterans and Memorial Day, he also began honoring his son’s memory in a unique way. Harrington felt it could be beautifully expressed in melody. Monti found Jared’s truck, a Dodge Ram 1500, in the exact condition he had left it before heading to Afghanistan. Feeling closer to his son while sitting in the vehicle, he began driving it around one day. Soon, he drove it regularly, realizing how much it helped him with his grief.
Finding the Right Singer
Alexander almost didn’t make it to work that day she and Harrington got together to write. She was pregnant with twins and thought about taking the day off to get ready for their birth. But when she saw Harrington’s name on her schedule, she knew she couldn’t miss their co-writing session.As Harrington pitched her ideas, Alexander wasn’t feeling particularly inspired by any of them. But when Harrington told her about Paul’s story, she knew it was the song they needed to work on that day.
They knew the song would be a good fit for a male vocalist. As they worked on the track, they brought their good friend and fellow songwriter Jimmy Yeary into the room to help them round things out. When they finished the words and melody to “I Drive Your Truck,” they all took a moment to recognize that they had contributed to a special story worth telling.
“I'll never forget the feeling of when it was done. The prayer that came over all of us, like “please let this song just be heard” so one day [Paul Monti] could hear that song.”
“We all cried at some point … and when it was over, there was just a communal prayer of, let’s make sure we get this to the right person to sing it.”
A ‘Full-Circle Moment’
When Brice heard a demo recording of “I Drive Your Truck” for the first time, he knew he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to record the song.
He included the song on his album “Hard 2 Love” and released it as a single in 2012. By early 2013, “I Drive Your Truck” became a No. 1 country hit.
Soon, Brice, Harrington, and Alexander were notified that an event was being held to celebrate their hit single. Brice mentioned he’d love to have the father there that inspired the track, but there was one problem. After listening to the NPR interview, Harrington realized she never caught the father’s name. She tried to track him down after but came up short each time. In one last attempt just two weeks before the event, she tried several internet searches. The last time she searched, Paul Monti’s name with a picture of his son’s truck finally came up on her screen.
Brice flew Monti out to Nashville to attend their event, which was hosted by Broadcast Music International (BMI). The three musicians were so excited to have him attend that Alexander called it a “full-circle moment.”
The impact “I Drive Your Truck” had on people would end up transcending the individual story that inspired the song. Alexander said that the composition helped people with all types of grief. She was proud to positively affect soldiers and their loved ones, saying, “I’m so grateful that we touched the chord of military families.”
The single’s timeless themes of love, honor, and patriotism continue to resonate with people over a decade after Harrington was first introduced to Paul Monti’s moving story while driving on Memorial Day.
