Luke Bryan takes the opportunity during this uplifting David Frasier, Ed Hill and Josh Kear penned song to explain that the good people in this world outnumber the bad.
I believe most people are good
And most mamas oughta qualify for sainthood
I believe most Friday nights look better under neon or stadium lights
I believe you love who you love
Ain't nothin' you should ever be ashamed of
I believe this world ain't half as bad as it looks
I believe most people are good.
Bryan said: "I think our society, we're categorizing people and judging them and we're human beings judging the other - and I think God judges us and He's the end."
"I think it's a ginormous, beautifully written chorus," he continued. "Anytime you can find a song that does that, I think it's something special."
Luke Bryan's mother was so impacted by the song when she first heard it that she wept into a paper towel - particularly at the line "Most mamas ought to qualify for sainthood."
"It's one of the best lines I've ever heard in a song," Bryan said. "That line really hit her like it should hit. I know my wife should definitely be a saint, putting up with me and my crazy boys."
This was released as the second single from What Makes You Country on January 8, 2018. Bryan considers the song to have a welcome message that could lead to a healing of hearts and minds, following all of the tragedy that people around the world experienced in 2017.
"I think it's a song that will truly help people believe in people again. I think it's so truthful in so many ways. We do get reminded every day of all the negativity of what humans are, and truly it's only .001 percent of people causing all the negativity. I mean, I truly believe that," he said. "I'm going to open the door for anybody and so many other people believe that way. I'm going to say hey to a stranger. I'm going to help somebody out in need, and that's what this song really, really preaches. It preaches the innocence of children, the beauty of mothers, the beauty of relationships, the beauty of what life truly could be and should be and really is.
"I truly believe that most people lay their heads down at night and try to be better and try to be good to other people," Bryan continued. "And I think this song captures those emotions perfectly."
The song was born out of Josh Kear's desperation to find something positive after the intensely negative 2016 presidential election. "In trying to process all of this one day, I wrote down 'Most People Are Good' as a way of helping myself deal with my feelings about what was unfolding on the public stage. I carried it around for awhile, but I kept coming back to it as a way of making myself feel better," he told
Taste of Country. "I figured if it worked for me, maybe it would help someone else too."
Though "Most People Are Good" wasn't written with Bryan in mind it made sense to Kear that he'd want to record it. "Once I knew Luke had heard it and loved it, that made perfect sense to me," he explained. "It feels like it was meant to be his song. There's an authenticity to his delivery. I know he believes what he's singing. That's all you can ask for, especially on a song that says 'I believe' over and over."
"This is Luke's song. It's a down-home look at our modern world and hopefully an honest reflection of the best our world can be," Kear continued. "Luke has worked hard to build up a reputation with his fanbase as not only fun, but authentic. The fact that he connects to the things in this song tells me that he truly does believe in each of the things this song talks about."
Best known as a good-time guy behind such bubbly tunes as "
Country Girl (Shake It For Me)" and "
Crash My Party," Luke Bryan was keen to record a more thoughtful song.
"I get kinda tapped as the party guy, you know, the big party at all my shows," he reflected to
ABC Radio. "But whenever I have the opportunity to put a song out like 'Most People Are Good,' that really tugs at people's emotion - I feel like more than ever, this is a song that truly people need to hear these days, and I think that's what's making it relate so well."
Bryan said he believes the song's message is important. "The bad people get shuffled to the front of the list," he explained. "You know, it's always nice to think about [how] there's a lot of good people out there in the world, and I think this song truly captures that emotion."
"I've had the song kinda in my back pocket for a quite awhile," Bryan added, "and it wasn't our first single off this album, but I knew when we had the opportunity to put it out that it was going to be a special song."
The song's message of equality and hope has struck a chord with Luke Bryan's LGBTQ listeners.
I believe you love who you love
Ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of
Bryan shared backstage at the 2018 CMA Music Festival that he is glad his LGBTQ fans are interpreting the lyrics as a message of support, though he didn't originally intend it that way. "The first time I heard the song, I was just so enamored with it as a body of work and everything it was saying that that line passed me by," he said. "I just thought of it as a love line. I'll be truthful: I thought about it as maybe an interracially charged line, but even that was only after multiple listens to the song."
"Going into recording it, if somebody had asked me if I would ever change that line, I would have been like, 'Are you crazy? Not in a million years,'" Bryan added. "I think that song is about the world in general. That line, in particular, needs to be interpreted however the listener wants to interpret it."
