4x4xU

Album

Whirlwind

Label

Broken Bow Records

Genre

Country

Composer(s)

Aaron Raitiere;Jon Decious;Lainey Wilson

Entered Chart

Nov 23, 2024

Peak Date

Jan 11, 2025

Released

September 3, 2024

This stripped-back country ballad is all about the pure, unadulterated joy of cruising down the highway in a 4x4 with your loved one. "4x4xU" is a slow and easy number, the kind that makes you want to roll down the windows and let the wind whip through your hair (assuming you have some, of course). Lainey Wilson celebrates that feeling of freedom and pure contentment. It doesn't matter where they're headed, from the swamps of Louisiana to the rolling hills of Kentucky, as long as they're together. Heck, they could be parked in the driveway for all it matters. The point is, they're together, and that's all that counts. "This song is about finding that someone that gives you the comfort and peace of home anywhere in the world as long as you're by their side," said Wilson. Lainey Wilson first met former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Devlin "Duck" Hodges back in 2021 through some pals in Nashville. The two lovebirds kept their romance under wraps until May 2023, when Wilson made her red carpet debut with Hodges at her side at the ACM Awards. During a Nashville show, Wilson told the crowd that she couldn't write love songs until Hodges came into her life. The Louisiana native said her beau is the inspiration for "4x4xU." "The truth is, I write what I know, and I finally found a man worth writing about," Wilson said. "So you know it's a love song because y'all probably thought, dang, she ain't got it in her, she ain't got it in her... but I do. I got me a cheerleader." Wilson wrote the song with Aaron Raitiere (Lady Gaga's "I'll Never Love Again," Ella Langley's "You Look Like You Love Me") and Jon Decious (Anderson East's "What A Woman Wants to Hear," Paul Cauthen's "25 Tequilas"). They penned "4x4xU" on the road during Wilson's performance at Indianapolis' Gainbridge Fieldhouse on November 1, 2023, coinciding with the 96th annual FFA Convention. "I was thrilled to be part of the FFA Convention," Wilson told Billboard. "My dad started one of the first FFA chapters at Louisiana Tech in Ruston. It just felt like a moment to write a song about my people, to create something about keeping them close." Lainey Wilson released "4x4xU" as the third single from Whirlwind on July 4, 2024. The song picks up right where the video for her previous single, "Hang Tight Honey," left off. In "Hang Tight Honey's" visual, Wilson is shown on the road, performing for her fans, but yearning to return home to her lover. The video for "4x4xU" begins with Wilson's reunion with her man, and it highlights the feeling of safety and comfort that washes over you when you're finally back with that special someone. Dano Cerny directed both videos. Wilson, Raitiere and Decious started off their songwriting session on the tour bus with a cheeky light-funk track, "Ring Finger." Then with a short pre-show window before Wilson was due on stage, they jumped into something fresh. "We had maybe 30 or 40 minutes," Decious recalled. "She had to go be a superstar in under an hour." Decious introduced the hook "4x4xU," an idea he'd stumbled upon in his routine "title-hunting" sessions. "I'm a huge Prince fan," he said, noting how Prince used numbers and shorthand in his song titles. "It reminded me of that vibe, like 'Nothing Compares 2 U.' You don't see that in country." Wilson shaped the "4x4xU" hook into a melody, close to what Decious had envisioned, and it became the chorus opener. The rest quickly followed. The song follows a theme Wilson established with hits like "Heart Like A Truck" and "Wait In The Truck." "For so long," she laughed, "I was like, 'I'm not going to write about trucks.' That's what everybody does. [But] every single one of my biggest songs is about a damn truck. I couldn't help it, but I guess you just write what you know. And the truth is, trucks are a big part of my childhood and even with the way that I live now, I'm always up and down the road." Wilson debuted "4x4xU" live at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe on June 17, 2024, during a songwriters' round. The song was so new, she had Post Malone hold her phone so she could read the lyrics. "I didn't even know the chords," she said. "I just made them up as I went."

I'm the kind to take the keys
Don't sit in a shotgun seat 'less I want to
And you make me want to
Hypnotized by the white lines
Your hands ten and two on this heart of mine
Makes me feel at home
Yeah, boy, I'm right at home
In a four-by-four by you, babe
From the Bayou to Kentucky
City to the country
From here to Timbuktu
And boy, after a long day
Ya know there ain't no wrong way
To drive my crazy, crazy
In a four-by-four by you
Parked out in the driveway
Backed up to a fire on a tailgate
Feet on the dashboard
Oh, nothin' I love more
90 to nothing, but we in slow motion
Up in the mountains or down by the ocean
It's all the same to me
Ain't nowhere I'd rather be
Than in a four-by-four by you, babe
NYC to LA
City to the country
From here to Kalamazoo
And boy, after a long day
You know there ain't no wrong way
To drive my crazy crazy
In a four-by-four by you
Right there beside you
Every morning sun
Every afternoon
Fly me to the stars
Fly me to the moon
In a four-by-four by you, babe
From the Bayou to Kentucky
City to the country
From here to Timbuktu
And boy, after a long day
You know there ain't no wrong way
To drive my crazy crazy
In a four-by-four by you
And, boy, after a long day
You know there ain't no wrong way
To drive my crazy crazy
In a four-by-four by you
Ooh, ooh (four-by-four by four-by-four by four-by-four by four by)
Ooh, ooh (four-by-four by four-by-four by four-by-you)
Ooh, ooh (four-by-four by four-by-four by four-by-four by four by)
Ooh, ooh (four-by-four by four-by-four by four-by-you)