Songwriter Gary Burr shares the Story Behind the Song 'I Try to Think About Elvis'

Nashville Songwriters Association International Executive Director Bart Herbison sat down with songwriter (and now book author) Gary Burr to talk about his 1994 Patty Loveless hit "I Try to Think About Elvis."

Being a huge Elvis fan himself, Herbison (who got engaged at Graceland) told Burr he couldn't believe they had never talked about this song before now. During the interview, Burr reveals something about the song that Herbison said he had never noticed: The name Elvis is only mentioned in the song one time.

Burr also revealed the song had to be rewritten for Loveless to make it more appropriate for a female singer. The original version was laced with too many masculine references of guns and football.

'I Try to Think About Elvis' was a statement Burr heard from a radio DJ

"I was driving into work and listening to the DJs on the radio," Burr remembered. "The United States Post Office was about to release an Elvis stamp. And they were doing a contest to have people vote because Elvis had a lot of phases and they were arguing on the radio who which Elvis should be on the stamp."

One DJ thought the stamp should be the Vegas version of Elvis in his bedazzled white suit. The other DJ said, "When I think about Elvis, I try to think about Elvis in the reunion special with the black leather, black hair."

That line resonated with Burr.

"I love songs with titles that make you want to listen to the song and go 'What is that about?'" he added. "So I heard him say,' I try to think about Elvis' and something just stuck in my head and I went upstairs and wrote the song."

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Did Burr write the song for Patty Loveless?

No. The tune skewed pop for the traditional bluegrass/country artist, but Burr's team pitched it to her and she loved it.

But the song was written from the male perspective. Also worth noting, a song that Burr thought would never get cut.

"I always joke when I sing it live," Burr says, laughing. "I tell the audience I need to explain the song. It's like when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much and the daddy wants to show that love for a longer period of time, he has to think of things in his head to preoccupy himself. That's what this song is about. It's a list of things the guy is thinking to himself. We'll leave it at that."

Once Loveless wanted to record it, Burr had to change it up a little bit for her.

"I went back in and put in the lines about high heels, good deals and talk shows to take out some of the more testosterony stuff. It was tremendous pressure because you know if you don't do the rewrite properly, you lose the cut. I sweated it out and the next thing I know they brought it for me to listen to. I did and it was tremendous."

Burr recently added a novel to his list of writing credits

An accomplished songwriter and the creative force behind decades of songs recorded by Tim McGraw, Juice Newton, The Oak Ridge Boys, Reba McEntire, Billy Ray Cyrus, Garth Brooks and more, Burr spent his downtime during COVID writing his first book, "Reunion," which he describes as a rock and roll fairy tale that explores the "what if" Beatles fans all over the world would love to see.

"(The story) starts with a rainy night in Hawaii and there's a traffic accident and a young man in the back of the car is killed. The man is Mark David Chapman. So that means that in my world, my reality, he never did get to New York, he never did kill John (Lennon.) And 20 years later, for the reason that I lay out in the book, Paul needs to see if he could get the lads back together for one big last concert."

Burr, who is friends with Beatle Ringo Starr, called him before he started writing.

"We are friends and we've got a really good relationship. And this is tricky. So when I started writing it, I didn't want to do it without him knowing about it. So I called him up and I told him what I was doing and he was really sweet. He just said, 'you know, I would never tell you what you can and can't do with your art.'"

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 our subjects, visit www.tennessean.com/music.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Songwriter Gary Burr talks about 'Elvis' and Patty Loveless