Jameson Rodgers' song "In It for the Money" — the title track of his 2020 EP — captures both his sincere love of making music, whether or not it makes him rich and famous by society's standards, and some of his favorite parts of his career. In it, the singer reflects on how he "caught a lot of hell when I left home with a guitar" and, as many do, struggled to make a living early on.

Rodgers co-wrote "In It for the Money" with Jake Mitchell, Hunter Phelps and Brent Anderson, during a writers' retreat early in the year. Below, he shares the story behind the song — which has an Eric Church-esque vibe — in his own words.

I didn't really have Eric Church in mind when I was doing the song. When we were writing it, we were just trying to paint the picture of all of our early years in Nashville, of us paying our dues.

That's probably the most personal song I've ever released. It's just so true. I mean, every song has a little bit of truth it in, but that one's all true. [Laughs]

It was one of those things where, Jake Mitchell, Hunter Phelps and Brent Anderson wrote it with me, and we were at a cabin east of Nashville — we go up there every January, right after Christmas, and we write for a week. He started playing that intro, the bass thing, on the keypad, like [sings the bass line], and he was like, "Man, we should start a song like that," and it just kind of fell out.

It's just so true — like, every line in that song is so true for me, and it's one of my favorites on the EP ... Like me, personally, I would do this for a just-getting-by salary for the rest of my life. Yeah, I'd love to make some money some day, but I would literally do it forever for a just-getting-by salary, just because I love pickin' up the guitar every morning and coming up with a song, or traveling, waking up in a different city and playing a show that night. I mean, it's just — I don't know, it's in my bones now.

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