As country continues to broaden in sonic scope, Eli Young Band have teamed up with pop star Andy Grammer for a remix of his danceable good-guy anthem, “Honey I’m Good.” With its energetic, quick-stepping beat, sky-high vocals and positive story about staying faithful to your significant other, the song hit grabbed the EYB guys’ attention — as did the numbers on its YouTube video: 34 million views (and counting).
“We’re constantly trying to evolve, mainly because we’re musicians and we get bored really easily,” lead singer Mike Eli tells Rolling Stone Country. “This song is one of those ones that’s like, ‘Someone is giving me the opportunity to be attached to an incredible song? Heck yeah, I’m in.'”
“And if feels like there have been quite a few songs that have crossed over the other way from country into pop,” bassist Jon Jones adds. “But very rarely do you find a song that feels like it’s gonna have a chance to flip the other way.
Both the band and Grammer think the original “Honey I’m Good” had quite a bit of country in it already — like the positive, relatable story and ridiculously infectious beat — so not a whole lot of changes actually had to be made. Some keyboards were swapped out for guitars and Eli added his vocals to the mix, but that was about it, which might say more about modern country than the song itself.
“The thing is, people loved this song so much already that you don’t want to change it too much,” says Eli. “I had this kind of counter-melody thing I was working on, but it was like, ‘Is it pulling away from what people love about the song?’ Ultimately, I think we did enough to it to put our stamp on it to make it feel like ours, as well as keeping what was so special about it already.”
