'Barefoot Blue Jean Night' was a country hit inspired by an Irish rock band

Jake Owen' s 2011 No. 1 hit "Barefoot Blue Jean Night" may have topped the country charts and been the most played country song of that decade, but its genesis was inspired by a rock band.

An Irish rock band.

The song, written by Dylan Altman,  Eric Paslay  and Terry Sawchuk, came together after Altman recounted to his co-writers a life-changing experience he'd had as a teenager at a U2 concert.

"I I don't even remember what precipitated me telling the story, but I was telling them before we wrote about having been in at a U2 concert at the old JFK Stadium in Philadelphia where they had done Live Aid," Altman said. "I was like 17 years old in high school and I'm with my buddies and 100,000 other people on a beautiful night and U2's at the height of their careers on the Joshua Tree tour. They're playing one of their songs and I'm on the floor and I turn around and all you could see for miles and miles were lighters. Everyone's holding up lighters. And on a September night like that to a 17-year-old kid, it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen."

At the telling of the U2 story, Altman, who had been writing with Paslay for a few years, said Paslay just started strumming chords, and 90 minutes later the song, with the line "We were shinin' like lighters in the dark / In the middle of a rock show," was complete.

"We were tapping into that thing we all felt when we were young and just joyful about being young and being with friends and summertime and everything," he continued.

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'Barefoot Blue Jean' is the hit that almost wasn't

After the song was written, Paslay, who is also an artist, thought about recording it for himself, but due to a recent catalog acquisition, a new song wasn't going to be the first thing his new publishing partner would want to cut.

But all the writing team knew they had a hit on their hands.

The song made its way to Owen, thanks to Paslay's wife, Natalie, who was a song plugger and publisher (and just a friend to Paslay) at the time.

"The wildest thing about this song is just because you know it's a hit the moment you write it, it doesn't mean someone's going to record it," Paslay said. "But Natalie had pitched that song to everybody in town at least twice."

Thankfully, she took it to Sony one more time, even though fellow publishers cautioned her against it. Although Owen's album at the time was all but finished, the team decided to cut "Barefoot Blue Jean Night" as the last song to make the record.

Paslay hit song he didn't get to sing

Paslay would go on the road with Owen as an opening act. But the one song he didn't get to sing was the one everyone wanted to hear Owen sing.

"I'd get to play a show and not play my only hit," Paslay remembers, laughing. "So it's just, it was a magical time just to think of all the ways it couldn't have happened and then all the ways that wanted it to happen."

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: Country star Jake Owen's 'Barefoot Blue Jean Night' was inspired by U2