Sometimes you write a country song about a memory.
Sometimes your family goes out and finds the memory.
That’s essentially what happened to Cole Swindell.
Swindell released a new song called “Bronco” on Friday, August 21, inspired by the Ford Bronco his late father used to own when Cole and his brothers were growing up.
The truck had been gone for years.
The memories weren’t.
Swindell wrote the song with Lauren Hungate, Seth Mosley and Jameson Rodgers, turning those childhood memories into the kind of nostalgic country song he’s always done particularly well.
Then he sent the demo to his brothers.
That’s when the story took a turn.
They decided to see if they could find the actual Bronco.
And somehow, they did.
Swindell’s brothers tracked down the truck their dad had owned all those years ago and surprised Cole with it while he was filming the music video for another deeply personal song, “Girl Dad.”
That’s quite a family heirloom.
The story carries some extra emotional weight because Swindell lost his father unexpectedly in 2013.
William Keith Swindell died when a truck he was working on fell on him. Cole was already pursuing his country career at the time, but many of the biggest moments of his life came afterward.
His dad never got to see him become a country star.
He never got to meet Cole’s wife, Courtney.
And he never got to meet their daughter, Rainey.
Those are exactly the kinds of moments Swindell has been writing about lately.
“Girl Dad” deals directly with wishing his father could see the family and life Cole has built. “Bronco” comes at that same loss from a different direction—not focusing on what his dad missed, but on something the family remembers.
And that’s probably why the truck matters.
To somebody else, it’s an old Ford.
To the Swindell brothers, climbing into it probably feels a little like being kids again.
There’s also something wonderfully country about the entire sequence of events.
Write a song about Dad’s old truck.
Send it to your brothers.
Brothers decide to find truck.
Brothers actually find truck.
At that point, you almost don’t need to write the music video.
Real life already did it for you.
