Dasha saddled up and came to Genius to break down her latest hit, “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’).” Produced by Travis Heidelman, the standout single from her new album 'What Happens Now?' quickly gained traction on TikTok, fueled by the viral line dance. In today’s episode of Verified, the country star dives into how the line dance came to life, the inspiration behind the song, how its emotional tone evolved, and more!
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00:00I made the line dance up with one of my friends, threw the phone up when we were at Honky Tonk
00:04Tuesday out in Nashville with my friend Zoe and we recorded that first video and that got like
00:07a million views overnight. That's never happened to me either. So I was like, okay, this is crazy.
00:12And then I just kept posting videos of me doing the line dance and just sent,
00:16absolutely sent. It was really wild.
00:24I remember I was so, so fucking upset with this guy. I remember we were writing a sad song
00:29at first in the session and then after like an hour of just going nowhere, I was like, you guys,
00:34we need to take five and I need to write an angry song because I have so much to say.
00:39That line of queuing songs, I was thinking about like Wagon Wheel. That's a classic
01:01crossroad song. For some reason, I shit you not, when I was writing this line, I was like,
01:06doses and mimosas would go so hard. Starting off, first thing at dawn,
01:10we're driving across the country. That's a song I'd play.
01:30This is where the tables flip, but you weren't home. I'm sitting on the porch. I'm like,
01:33where the fuck could he be? Snuck around the back, beer cans everywhere. He's not home. He
01:39clearly got drunk and had a party here last night. He was not packing his shit up for LA.
01:43And that's when I lose it. And I'm like, oh, I know exactly where he is. He's down at that bar.
01:48Oh my God, I'm going to lose my shit on him. And it's cool because this part of the song,
01:53that is completely made up. I'd never even been to Austin when I wrote this song,
01:56but the emotion behind it, how betrayed and how disappointed I was in this guy,
02:03that is so real. I was just so upset and had gone over the details of her actual situation
02:09so many times that I just couldn't write about it again because I'd overwritten it. I just had
02:13to make up some random story that had the emotion still in it. And that's where Austin came from.
02:32I freestyled the first line.
02:41And everyone was like, what'd you just say? I went back in my voice note and I was like,
02:44what did I say? Did your boot stop working? And I was like, oh, don't know where the fuck that
02:49came from, but I love that. And it's funny because people on the internet are so mad about that line.
02:53They're so confused. But I'm like, how are you confused about this? It's a metaphor.
03:02Well, I'd never been to Austin and TBH, Austin didn't signify anything. It was just rhymed.
03:21It sounded good. I also love Texas. And so I was like, great, Austin. But I'd never been,
03:27never set foot there. Yeah, that was totally made up. Yeah.
03:32Hell of a bluff. You had me believing. How many months did you plan on leaving?
03:40What happened? Bad habits. Did you go back? Go back shit. I loved you. How tragic.
03:48The second verse, I kind of saw this when I pull up to the bar and I see him in there and I'm kind
03:53of in my head, I was like pitting him against the wall and I was like, oh, hell of a bluff.
03:57And finally, I'm just saying everything that I've wanted to say to him for so long. So I'm calling
04:00him out. I'm like, oh, you had me believing for so many months that you were in love with me and
04:04you're gonna move to LA with me. Oh, and now you're drunk, washed up here and the car's packed. I'm
04:09leaving. You know? We were like, what are other cliches that we could just totally make fun of
04:17him for? Like, oh, was the whiskey flowing? Were you in a fight? I kind of wanted this to feel
04:20very accusatory. So this is where the female rage comes in and it felt really good writing
04:24this chorus. I'm not going to lie.