Hear ‘Babe’, Sugarland’s Collaboration With Taylor Swift
Sugarland have released "Babe," their new collaboration with Taylor Swift, as their new single. The song comes from the country duo's new album, Bigger, and readers can press play above to hear it.
Swift co-wrote "Babe" with Train's Pat Monahan, and she adds background vocals in the song's chorus and bridge. Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush say the country-turned-pop superstar approached them about recording the song when she learned that they were reuniting.
"[S]he was excited we were getting back together and reached out, and said, 'Hey, I have a song,'" Nettles says. "And that is a short list, ladies and gentleman, of people to whom she has said, 'Hey, I have a song. Wanna sing it?' So we said yes."
As for the subject of the song, Nettles and Bush say they "don't know" and "didn't ask her" who or what inspired the track.
“I'm going to close my mouth and let her tell that story -- I'm going to let the song tell that story,” Nettles says. "She’s very confessional in what she does with her songwriting. She lives her life out there through it, and you will see.”
"Babe" is the only song on the album that the Sugarland did not write -- and Bush says that's a big deal: "We've never really put a song by anybody else on any of our records, so we weren't really used to sorting through that, and we didn't want to mess it up," he shares. "So we didn't tell anybody about it until we got finished. And she liked it, thank God. It is a good song."
Bigger, due out on June 8, will be Sugarland's sixth studio album, and their first since 2010's The Incredible Machine. Bush and Nettles put the duo on hiatus in 2012, and have pursued solo projects, acting (Nettles) and production work (Bush) in the years since. Although the two were apart for some time, they say they are working well together, just like old times.
More New Albums Coming in 2018