Trace Adkins photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.
June 19, 2008 — Trace Adkins and the two songwriters who wrote "You’re Gonna Miss This" — Lee Thomas Miller and Ashley Gorley — were the subject of two parties yesterday on Music Row.
Appropriately, given the parental nature of the song’s moving storyline, the three dads have 12 children between them, and the song’s storyline was born out of real-life events. Ashley had some maintenance work being done at his house, his two kids — and the family dog — kept getting in the way, and Ashley’s wife apologized repeatedly. The maintenance man insisted that he didn’t mind. Ashley had the presence to recognize it as a pivotal moment for a song, and when he shared the story at their next writing session, Lee suggested the title that’s now embedded in the minds of country fans.
"It was a very personal song for me," Trace noted. "When I heard the song, my oldest daughter had just gotten married. It just killed me. It just fits my life to a tee. Rhonda and myself, we spend our days chasin’ five kids around tryin’ to keep up with ‘em, so I knew that other parents in this country would relate to it that as well."
The song had a huge impact, in part because it overlapped so perfectly with Trace’s participation in "The Celebrity Apprentice." Trace did the show almost entirely because of the exposure it provided for the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, and the familial theme of "You’re Gonna Miss This" fit his personality perfectly. The songwriters, now hearing their creation on a daily basis, have found themselves impacted by their own song as well.
"My youngest daughter has food allergies very similar to Trace’s daughter — some of the same scary, off-to-the-emergency-room, EpiPen-in-the-leg, you-eat-peanut-butter-you-could-die — that kind of scary stuff," Lee said. "I get to meet Trace and we’re talkin’ about that, we’re talkin’ about the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, then he’s on TV, he’s singing this song that we wrote, all the money’s going to this charity that tries to make people aware of this deadly thing for kids that my daughter has. That night, I looked at my wife. He’s singin’ it live and that day it had technically gone No. 1, and Donald Trump has introduced him, and he’s up against the evil Brit and we’re all pullin’ for him, and he’s singin’ the song and we’re bawlin’. I’m like, ‘This is a God thing. It’s so surreal for him to be on singin’ that song for that charity.’ That for me was the pinnacle of the whole ride."
Lee and Ashley also find themselves reminded by "You’re Gonna Miss This" to live in the moment with their kids.
"I do think about that scenario in that song sometimes," Ashley observed. "You don’t try to get in too big a hurry when you’re tuckin’ ‘em in or doin’ things with ‘em, try to take a day off here and there. It really does go by. It’s such a cliché, but I’ve got one [child] that I feel like we just had, and he’s startin’ kindergarten in the fall, so I’m takin’ off a week or two in the summer to do whatever they wanna do. They won’t be around [the house] long, and the same case with Lee. We try to live by that."
Trace and the songwriters all received a bevy of plaques and trophies from ASCAP, BMI, the Country Music Association, Capitol Records, Country Weekly magazine and Country Radio Broadcasters.
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