Chesney told Country Standard Time, "It was never meant to be some kind of a message — except to maybe myself[…]It's one thing when Willie Nelson at 70 sings it, and something totally different when Dave and I do.

"[4] Chesney's version of the song is set in the key of E♭ major, with a vocal range from B♭3 to F5 and a main chord progression of E♭-E♭+/G-A♭-A♭m.

He said that the song had "somewhat ambitious" lyrics, and made note of Matthews' vocal performance, but said that Chesney sounded like a "workaday singer" and that the duet did not have a sense of interplay between the two vocalists.

Freedom Du Lac of The Washington Post said, "The song is supposed to be an anthem about strength and survival and soldiering on[…]Yet it sounds more like a weary wish than a declaration,"[7] and an uncredited review in the Hartford Courant said that it "may be the plainest thing Matthews has ever done.

The song later appeared on Chesney's Greatest Hits II compilation a year afterward, and was released in August as that album's second single.