"Forever Country" is a 2016 mashup performed by Artists of Then, Now & Forever, a one-time gathering of 30 American country music artists. The song combines elements of three previous country hits: John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (1971), Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" (1979), and Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" (1973). The song was recorded to commemorate the Country Music Association Awards reaching its 50th year. Originally, CMA Awards producers had wanted to record a cover of a single song; the idea to instead record a mashup came from Joseph Kahn, who directed the song's music video. The song was recorded in a span of three days in Nashville, Tennessee, in June 2016 with Shane McAnally as producer, with the music video produced concurrently.
"Forever Country" was released on September 16, 2016, and the video premiered four days later on September 20 during Dancing with the Stars. All profits from the sale and streaming of the song go to music education supported by the CMA Foundation.
The song debuted atop Billboards Hot Country Songs chart, becoming the third song in history to achieve the feat and giving every artist featured on the song a number one hit.
In a rare display, the rival Academy of Country Music gave "Forever Country" and the CMA their Video of the Year Award at their 2017 ceremony.
Development
Background and development
The song was recorded to honor the 50th Annual Country Music Association (CMA) Awards. It was produced by Shane McAnally and is a mashup of three existing songs: "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver, and "On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson. Along with Nelson and Parton singing portions of their own songs, the song features 28 other current and veteran country acts who are all previous CMA winners; Denver died in 1997. Randy Travis, who was incapacitated by a stroke in 2013, was unable to record but makes a silent cameo appearance in the music video and is credited as an artist. Parton, Nelson, and Denver are all former CMA Entertainer of the Year winners.
The idea for the song and its accompanying video was born at a CMA board meeting as a way to celebrate the milestone of 50 years of the CMA Awards. Everyone was brainstorming about an interesting and unique way to honor the 50th anniversary." The CMAs then approached Joseph Kahn – after he won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video for Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards – and solicited his opinion about whether there were any country songs which he would like to do. Kahn began to think about different possible songs but felt that the choices were too limited in terms of trying to get the entire history of country music into one song. So he pitched the CMA board the idea of doing a mash-up of three different songs, so that one would get more of a breadth of the history. He told CNN, "I didn't think one song could encapsulate all of country music, so I pitched the idea of doing a mashup of a couple songs and blending them together." But Kahn was told that it would never work and the reaction was the same from whomever he approached.
After the idea coalesced, Shane McAnally was asked to take up the assignment to execute Kahn's idea. He was among the first people approached to take up the task, being on the CMA board partly as a result of his star-making work with Kacey Musgraves and Old Dominion. He happily took on the job, but admits that he was hesitant to make a medley of the songs at first, saying that the process might work for the pop genre, but not for country, since "...we tell stories. And we can't just cut into them and take a piece." He admitted that mashing together a bunch of country classics was "a very scary process" and although Kahn wanted three songs, he envisioned one song being the focus.
The two of them started with songs in mind that had the same tempo and same chord progressions. During the song searching process, a total of 40 songs were considered as potential contenders, most of which were previous CMA Song of the Year winners, or at least been nominated, and songs with universal themes that could sound like a love song to the country genre. Originally, Kahn wanted to incorporate songs including "Gentle on My Mind" by Glen Campbell and "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers. But everybody would keep coming back to "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton, saying that it was a quintessential song in the country genre.