Story Behind the Song: Gabby Barrett's 'I Hope'

Here’s a sentence you never want to hear from an artist you’re writing a song with:

“I’m not gonna sing that.”

That’s what Jon Nite and Zach Kale heard from Gabby Barrett after the trio worked on “the biggest love song of all time” for the “American Idol” star.

They may not have wanted to hear that, but in retrospect, they needed to. Barrett’s input helped them reshape the song into what became her massive breakout hit “I Hope.”

In the song, Barrett wishes the best, then the worst for an ex that did her wrong.

“I hope she's wilder than your wildest dreams/ She's everything you're ever gonna need/ And then I hope she cheats like you did on me.”

Released in 2019, “I Hope” topped the country charts, crossed over into Top 40 via a remix with Charlie Puth, and has now been certified seven times.

Nite told the "Story Behind the Song" to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Bart Herbison: I am obsessed with this song. I think I've told you, Jon, that it is my wife's favorite song since we've been married.

Jon Nite: Oh, my gosh.

BH: She's obsessed with it, too. And she's a real test. If she likes something, it's a hit. But take us back to the writing of the song. I absolutely love this song: the melody, every line, every note. I just think it's brilliant, genius songwriting.

JN: Well, it was not intentional. And I think a lot of great songs are from co-writes like that day. We started to write a song for her, not really knowing what she needed. But Zach and I were talking and we're like, “Man, her voice is so incredible, it would be amazing if she did, like, the biggest love song of all time, (that) kind of feeling.”

And so we started writing these lines that were genuinely love song kind of lines. We spent probably 30 minutes going back and forth. And she was really quiet. And we didn't really understand why. The whole time, Zach and I are throwing these lines out, and we're so excited about them and writing them down. And she's just not saying a lot. And then about halfway through what became the chorus, she just stopped us and said, "Guys, girls are just not that nice.  I'm not gonna sing that.”

And so we were like, "Oh, wow, I didn't even think about that." And so that was the moment where we knew, we were like, "OK, we're gonna still use this stuff." And it just kind of magically went from there to where we stumbled into, "Oh, my gosh, this (song) could all be like, 'I hope you find the perfect person for you that you love so much, and then they do what you did to me and then they cheat on you, like you cheated on me."

As young as she was at the time, maybe she was 19 years old, she had this gut instinct of what would work for her. And we would never have written it if she had not said that thing. From there on, we got to kind of go crazy on melodies, because she can sing anything. And it was just amazing. It was a long day. ... I had to leave. It was an afternoon write. And so I went back, and they cut the vocal that ended up being the record. Really, just one take or two takes, maybe.

BH: Well first of all, I would say I'm not surprised with her.

JN: She's incredible. She's one of the best vocalists I've had a chance of working with. How I even found out about her was Zach came over to my house for dinner. And I was like, "Hey, play me something you're into." He played me her voice on his phone from a church soundcheck, and she was singing a gospel song and that's how I found out about her. I didn't know about "Idol." No offense to "Idol," but I haven't watched it and I'm busy making music all day. I don't really want to watch music at night.

BH: I've watched it since Season One, and I noticed her pretty early on. Not only could she sing; she had a way to propel her emotions through that screen.

JN: She can make you feel the lyric. Yeah. And that's a true superstar thing. Not everybody can do that. And not everybody's meant to do that. She got a God-given gift.

BH: I ask this often in Story Behind the Song: Did you kind of know it was something special that day?

JN: I did. ... I told those guys, I was like, “This is one of the best songs I've been a part of.” And they were like, “Yeah, it’s pretty good.” And I was like, “No, y'all. This is like, amazing to me.”

I just don't know if I'll ever write a song that goes wildfire crazy like that again. But every day now, I'm like, “It could be that day. You better show up. You get out of bed.”

About the series

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, the "Story Behind the Song" video interview series features Nashville-connected songwriters discussing one of their compositions. For full video interviews with all of our subjects, visit www.tennessean.com/music.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Story Behind the Song: Gabby Barrett's 'I Hope'