Another avenue that Smyers and Mooney show how grateful they are for everything is in their music. One of those songs, "Glad You Exist", was released to country radio on February 5, 2021 and climbed to the number one slot of the Mediabase Country chart later that year on August 16.
It is a positive, upbeat tune that feels like a giant hug to everyone in the duo's lives. This song was released in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. For me, I really missed not being able to see my family and friends in person, but I was grateful to be able to talk to a lot of them via phone calls and video chats. This song made me appreciate time my family and friends even more than I did prior to the pandemic starting.
The tune, which was written by Mooney and Smyers, alongside their co-writers, Ryan Lewis, Tayla Parx, and Jordan Reynolds, starts off with them showing appreciation for things that happened in the past. The first verse starts with Mooney's beautiful vocals backed up by the rhythm of an acoustic guitar and keyboard.
He begins by singing, "Here's to all the late night drunk phone calls that you picked up/Here's to all the bad decisions that you didn't judge." The lead vocalist continues singing, giving nod to "All the 'love yous' and the 'hate yous' and the secrets that you told me." He ends the chorus with the lyric, "Here's to everyone but mostly us."
While they are giving appreciation to everyone in their lives, in the end the most important people in their lives are their respective significant others.
Up next is the chorus, which says that while we live in this world with so many people, we need to look at the smaller picture and appreciate those in our circle. During this section of the song, Mooney provides his beautiful lead vocals and Smyers lends his gorgeous harmonies, both backed up by the rhythm of the acoustic guitar, keyboard, and the drums.
The chorus starts with Mooney singing and Smyers harmonizing, "There's a couple billion people in the world/And a million other places we could be but you're here with me." The duo continue to sing, "Take a moment just to take it in/'Cause every high and every low led to this/I'm just so glad you exist."
This leads into the second verse. When the duo performed this song on award shows and live at their concerts, they would always smile at one another, especially during the first line. Mooney sings, "Hey, look, what a hello from a stranger turned into." On December 7, 2012, the duo met at a house party at Smyers' house and they immediately hit it off. Stay tuned for a future post on how their musical journey together started.
Mooney continues to tell the story with the second verse lyrics, "Caught up in a moment like it's just us in this room/All the right words at the right time/And you know 'em 'cause you know me better than anyone else/We don't need anyone else."
Then the chorus repeats.
Next, Mooney performs the bridge, telling the songwriters significant others what is on their minds. "Don't you ever go, don't you ever go, don't you ever go changing/Never let me go, never let me go, never let me go, baby."
The chorus repeats for the third and final time and Mooney ends the song with one last "I'm glad you exist." Then he sings some "ooh's" until the song fades out.
Stay tuned for future posts about the duo's performance of this song on award shows. I will also write a post that includes the duo talking about how the song came to be. There will also be a commentary post on the acoustic version of the track!
Below is an audio video of "Glad You Exist" courtesy of Dan + Shay's YouTube channel! Enjoy!
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