“Follow Me” by Uncle Kracker

As of the writing of this post, Uncle Kracker has five children from two different women. And the reason we even brought that aspect of his personal life up is because at the time “Follow Me” came, being in his mid-20s Kracker was already, based on his own description, “married with a couple of kids”. In other words, he was a responsible family man. As such, he wasn’t finna to just drop a song with just any type of potentially off-putting lyrics.

But that is not to imply that “Follow Me” is family-friendly, if a reader is mature enough to discern what the lyrics are truly about. And it is clear that the vocalist uses shrouded language to slightly veil some of the narrative. That is to say that this song is about two different subjects at the same time. But regardless of which topic takes precedence in the mind of the listener, they’re both by and large mature-oriented anyway.

Verses

And the simplest way to describe this piece is by initially noting that it features two verses. Both, to a minor degree, are metaphor-reliant, with the first being the more poetic of the two. In the first verse, the vocalist is taking on the role of a character or more specifically personifying a substance. And that substance, most simply put, would be her–n.

Meanwhile, the second verse is relayed from a first-person, human perspective. And who Uncle Kracker is addressing would apparently be a married or engaged woman he’s having an affair with. And basically, what he’s telling her is to relax and not to be afraid but rather prioritize keeping their relationship discreet.

Chorus of “Follow Me”

Then, the chorus centers on the concept of the vocalist admonishing the addressee to ‘follow him’. Depending on which of the above narratives serves as a premise, this instruction would be interpreted differently. 

As far as the first verse goes, it would be as if a drug is calling out to its addict, advertising itself as the one who can give him or her relief. And it’s sort of a similar interpretation with the second verse, i.e. the vocalist assuring this married woman he’s messing with that everything will be okay, if she just follows his lead.

Bridge

With that understanding in mind, the bridge may come off as being a bit confusing. But maybe the point that Uncle Kracker is trying to get across is that both of the above scenarios are in fact messed up. So whether it be the addictive drug or the adulterer speaking, their promises, as featured in this passage, are indeed false. 

And that’s because in reality they’re only semi-committed, and if anything goes wrong they’re going to put the blame on the other party in this relationship, not themselves.

In Conclusion

So, this is an interesting piece. Even though “Follow Me” proved to be an international hit, it’s pretty clear that it was written by someone who really didn’t have a lot of songwriting experience at the time. But this motif of comparing drug addiction to some type of illicit romance is actually quite common in the music industry. And this song does a better job than most in getting that idea across in an interesting manner.

Facts about Uncle Kracker and “Follow Me”

Uncle Kracker is a vocalist from Michigan whose primary genre is listed as country music, though he has a notable history in hip-hop also. Between the years 2000 and 2012, he managed to drop five studio albums. And “Follow Me” is the lead single from the first of those, 2000’s “Double Wide”, thus making it the first single in his discography.

“Follow Me” also remains Uncle Kracker’s most successful song to date. It was a chart topper in more than a handful of countries, most notably reaching number one on Kracker’s native Billboard Adult Top 40 chart. And overall it charted in nearly 20 nations and achieved platinum status in the UK, Australia and Sweden.

The aforenoted chart history of this song is in actuality nearly 20 years long. It began in the year 2001 and ended in 2016, thus making “Follow Me” one of the more enduring hits.

Music-related graphical artist Nick Egan directed the video to this track. And it features another professional American singer in Mark McGrath.

Uncle Kracker wrote and produced this song with his musical homey, Michael Bradford. Bradford sorta looks like another, more popular musician named CeeLo Green. As such when he appeared on the aforementioned video, many people mistook him for CeeLo.

This song was issued by Atlantic Records and Lava Records, in conjunction with Uncle Kracker’s own label, Top Dog.