Lori McKenna Surveys Family Ties on ‘1988,’ Discusses the Impact of ChatGPT on Songwriters: ‘I Don’t Think AI Can Write Great Songs’

Singer-songwriter Lori McKenna is known for crafting heartstring-tuggers such as Tim McGraw’s “Humble and Kind,” as wellas sultry ballads like Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush.” But on her new album, 1988 (out today on CN Records/Thirty Tigers), McKenna punches up her folksy tendencies with a few layers of electric guitars, while retaining her ability to survey both past and present.

She can succinctly distill wisdom into a single line, whether through clear-eyed nostalgia (“When the way it was/ wasn’t what it seemed,” on “Growing Up”), asking a partner to carry the emotional load (“Would it kill you to be happy?” on “Killing Me,” featuring Hillary Lindsey), or coming to terms with life choices (“She remembers what her body did carrying all those kids,” on “The Old Woman in Me”).

A mother of five who lives in Massachusetts, McKenna decamped to producer Dave Cobb’s studio in Savannah, crafting the album with handful of musicians and with Cobb overdubbing all the electric parts. “He’s really into the vibe, the way things feel,” she explains. “One of the things is that he always makes me feel comfortable in the studio. He’s like, ‘Let’s just chat and then we’ll play the song, and then we’ll move some mics around.’ It’s kind of like this trickery of like, ‘Oh, we’re actually recording this for a record that will be around for a long time.’ It feels organic.”

Billboard spoke with McKenna about crafting the album, her upcoming fall tour with Brandy Clark and the next generation of country singer-songwriters.

“Happy Children” feels like a kindred spirit to “Humble and Kind” in some ways. You wrote it with your son Chris. What is the origin story there?

I heard someone say, “I wish you happy children,” and sort of just walk away, and it was like a beautiful goodbye. I wanna say that to everybody I know. I thought it was so beautifully said and I wanted it to be a song. I did kind of go down the humble and kind road as far as like, I hope you have these things, it’s gotta be a list, which is what “Humble and Kind” is. I tried to make it a progression of a life experience, but I couldn’t figure out how to do the chorus and get back to what I wanted it to originally say. Chris was home visiting, and I asked him to help me with it. We finished it together and it really was fitting that it’s a song about children and I wrote it with one of my own children.

You wrote this album’s title track with your son Brian. How does it feel to see two of your children forging their own careers as songwriters?

It’s been such a joy watching them. They live in Nashville and are mainly writing songs every day. Brian’s a bartender and they’re still doing the things that help pay the bills. But I tell them all the time, “If you get to write songs every day or almost every day and you get to have music be this much a part of your life, you are successful in music.”

It’s been fun watching their journeys because I never moved to Nashville. I never did what they are doing. I was in a different part of my life and I was blessed to be part of this [Nashville] community without living here. But having two kids there now and watching their experience of it has been awesome.

This album centers family, love, life in small towns. But it’s not always picturesque. “Wonder Drug” addresses the opioid epidemic. What inspired this?

It’s not somebody’s story, but it’s somebody’s story, you know? I just drew from stories I know of people who have struggled with some kind of drug problem or alcohol problem. And also from the show [Dopesick] with Michael Keaton, about the opioid epidemic. The song is sort of seeing from that perspective of these two kids having this idea of what was going to happen with their lives and then, this addiction comes in and throws a wrench into it.

When I got to the line, “Why can’t love be the wonder drug?,” when that came out of my mouth, I didn’t know if it was terrible or if it was gonna work, but I kept thinking, “But that’s what I wish.” Why couldn’t this thing that feeds us all and saves us all, why can’t that be the best feeling in the whole world? For some people it isn’t. These other roads they go down. … So, as much as I sort of tormented myself about that line, I love it now, and I’m happy it came out the way it did, because I think Dave really brought it to life in the studio.

How do you balance staying in the moment in a writing session and the urge to self-edit?

When I said “I wanna write a song called ‘Girl Crush’” to Hillary Lindsey, she sang the first four lines of that song without thinking a second about it. I was like, “Oh my god, what was that?” It just flowed out of her. You have to trust the song and trust the flow, because otherwise that song would have ended up being thrown away. That’s one of the million things I’ve learned from co-writers is just trust the song. Don’t go back the next day and piece it apart. It won’t work, it lives and breathe in that moment, you’re creating it and you gotta follow it.

What are your thoughts on songwriters using ChatGPT, and how do you feel AI will impact songwriting?

I do know I’ve listened to so many people being quite nervous about it. There’s parts of music that might go away as far as people making livings — doing music for videos, or maybe commercials. I don’t think it’s going to go away in my world as quickly because I’m still sitting in rooms with people with pens and papers and guitars, for the most part. But I’ve also heard brilliant writers say it can be helpful in the inspirational side of things.

When sampling started in music, it was a similar conversation: “We can’t do this. We can’t sample songs.” Now it happens all the time. But songwriters are more impacted by the fact that people don’t buy records, they stream music. I always try to remember what Tom Douglas told me a long time ago: “They’re always gonna need great songs.” And I don’t think AI can write great songs. I think you need that humanness.

In September, you hit the road with Brandy Clark. What you most excited for about the tour?

We’ve written a bunch together and I love her as a human. I’m so excited to tour with her. We’ve been literally texting just today about the way we’re going to put the show together and how we’ll travel. I think it’s gonna be so soul-filling for us to shine a light on some songs that you don’t get to play every night. She’s a person who can sort of hold magic in one hand and hard work in the other, and just put them together in such a beautiful way.

You have written with several rising artists recently. Who are some of the singers and songwriters you are excited about?

I’ve been friends with Hailey Whitters for years, but I just saw her open as show for Dierks Bentley and Jordan Davis, and you know, she just scoops everybody up in the palms of her hands and she just hugs everybody with her music. Megan Moroney is an outrageously talented artist. The way she sings and turns phrases is exciting to me. I just had Chase Rice over here, who I had not known. His last record has a song called “Bench Seat.” I think it’s like a masterclass in songwriting, and he wrote it by himself. I think he’s got this long, beautiful road ahead of him, but I would encourage people to write songs by themselves and see what happens.