Multi-platinum selling country singer Jordan Davis added a special moment to a couple’s parking lot wedding recently. He Zoom-called into the nuptials to play one of his hits “Slow Dance in a Parking Lot.”
Due to COVID-19, Carrie and John Michael lost their jobs and their wedding ceremony became a smaller, outdoor event. Jordan Davis found out about the couple through a friend of theirs. After learning of the hard times they were facing, he “jumped at the chance to help out in some way,” he says in the Good Morning America video. The country star even dressed up for the occasion, sporting a collared-shirt in his kitchen and joking it was the first one he’s worn in months.
The newly-weds spoke on the beautiful moment on GMA following the wedding. Carrie says the song has grown to mean more through the coronavirus pandemic. “As the year has gone on, there’s a lyric that says, ‘Making the most with whatever we got, even if it’s a slow dance in a parking lot, and that’s kinda been our anthem.”
She adds it’s not just a lyric that helps them as a couple in COVID, but it’s been their go-to song for a range of things. Carrie says it’s the duo’s anthem “as entrepreneurs, as a couple, as all the things we grew up not having.”
Jordan Davis retweeted Good Morning America’s video saying he agrees, it was a “pretty awesome moment.”
‘Slow Dance in a Parking Lot’: an ‘honest, real kind of love story’
Jordan Davis notes in the GMA video that he gets tons of messages about the song because of its relatable and realistic lyrics. “It’s an honest, real kind of love story,” he says.
In 2019, Davis spoke on the song’s creation. He co-wrote the song with Lonnie Fowler, who explains the song is actually a retelling of him and his wife’s first date. “We spent this whole night dancing, but it was crowded and loud and all that kind of stuff,” he recalls in a video by Sounds Like Nashville. “So we were driving in my ‘86 Dodge Colt named Cliff on our way back from Indianapolis, and I just pulled off into this empty parking lot.”
“Is that not the slickest thing?” Jordan adds about Fowler’s first date move. “No wonder she married you.”
As they talk about the lyric-writing process, Fowler recalls Davis just began spilling a “stream of consciousness” with tons of poetic words that became the song’s famous lyrics. Davis admits he definitely tries to cram as many words into his songs as possible. “I look at it as ‘We’ve only got three and a half minutes, I’m gonna put as many words in there as I can’ because the more words, it tells more of the story,” he says.
Jordan Davis draws influence from a range of genres
A harmonious mix of pop and classic country influence can be heard in Davis’s music. On his website, Davis references country icons as his go-to music growing up. “My go-to guys were John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Don Williams…that’s who I grew up loving,” but admits “that wasn’t necessarily getting the party started, you know?”
“Then when I went to college, I got really into Usher, John Mayer and Maroon 5. Still love ‘em!” he adds. He makes it clear he still loves his college music style. The country star shared a cover of Usher’s ‘U Got It Bad’ on Instagram recently. With Davis’s southern voice and the acoustic guitars soft strum, the Usher song takes on a whole new personality in an amazing way.
Jordan Davis most recently released his acoustic version of his recent hit “Almost Maybes” on Spotify. The star was a nominee for ‘New Male Artist of The Year’ in the 2020 ACM Awards.
