"The song’s iconic nature has ... appeared across pop culture. It’s been featured in the popular video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and the popular horror television show, Ash vs Evil Dead. It was also referenced by Drake in his 2x platinum single, HYFR, where he says, 'All my exes live in Texas like I’m George Strait.'"In January of 1987, George Strait released his seventh studio album, "Ocean Front Property", which still is one of his best known. Not least because it contains a song called 'All My Ex's Live In Texas'. Released as the second single from the album, it was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1988 and became the 11th number 1 hit in his long career. A career that was so successful that it earned him the nickname King of Country Music with over 60 number 1 hits.
Whitey Shafer, who wrote the song with his then wife Lyndia Shafer, liked to emphasize that it was based on personal experiences. americansongwriter.com quoted him as saying in April of 2024: "I was kinda writing my biography. I changed the names to protect the guilty. I do have some exes in Texas. Thank God they live down there. It’s not really why I live in Tennessee, but it’s a good kicker for the song."
and Texas is the place I'd dearly love to be.
But all my exes live in Texas,
and that's why I hang my hat in Tennessee.
More than 35 years later, the song seems to have lost none of its popularity. Because when Blake Shelton released his first single on the new label BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville/Wheelhouse Records on November 15, 2024, the reference to the George Strait hit in the chorus of the new single was impossible to miss. It consequently bears the short and concise title 'Texas'.
"It's a song about this dude that his girl hasn't even bothered to tell him where she is going," Blake Shelton describes the song's theme on YouTube. "I assume, she didn't even tell him, that she was leaving at all, he has no clue where she is. So he's sitting at the bar drinking with all the other losers."
Amarillo, all I know,
George Strait said it,
yeah, that's where all them exes go.
If she ain't with me out here in Tennessee,
then I don't know where she's headed.
If I'm guessin', I reckon
she's probably in Texas.
The video that goes with the song takes up the situation and expands it into a small road movie starring actress Génesis Rodríguez. She eventually buries the GPS tracker in a suitcase to erase her traces for good.
During a guest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Blake Shelton revealed in his inimitably dry humor that his wife Gwen Stefani had not only released her new album ("Bouquet") on the same day that 'Texas' was released, but that the plot of the video for the first single from it ('Somebody Else's') was almost identical to that of the video for 'Texas' - even though the two apparently didn't know about each other's concept.
On the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) chart of February 14, 2025, the catchy tune 'Texas' holds at number 13 after 13 weeks. Even though it seems that the song is running out of steam a little, Blake Shelton emphasizes at abcnews.go.com: "The thing that struck me about 'Texas' immediately was how different it sounded for me. It's connected with what I've done but moves forward at the same time, and it's the perfect start to the next chapter of my career."
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