Carrie Underwood's 'Little Toy Guns' co-writer shares how they came up with the lyrics and story to the song
Chris DeStefano, one of the co-writers of the hit song "Little Toy Guns" is sharing how he and Christian country singer Carrie Underwood came up with the lyrics and story of the song, saying that he was really impressed with Underwood's creative flair.
He spoke about the making of the song in an interview with the Billboard Country newsletter, and the country hitmaker said that they originally planned on naming the song "Wooden Guns" until Underwood came up with an inspiring story to back the song up.
"I brought the 'Little Toy Guns' track into the writing session with Carrie and our good friend Hillary Lindsey. All the parts were there, but no song yet," DeStefano said.
"Hillary heard this riff I was doing in the verse and thought it could be cool to open up the song with it," he added. "So after a quick edit, we began writing it."
It was only then that Underwood had a stroke of genius that completely changed the title and tone of the song.
"Carrie reacted to it and put a really great spin on it, calling it 'Little Toy Guns,' and began to talk about how it could be a story about a girl who hears her parents arguing and how she wishes words didn't hurt like they do," he said. "We all felt very strongly on the subject. One of my favourite lines is from Carrie: 'Fighting at the drop of a faucet.'"
DeStefano was impressed with Underwood's story, calling it nothing short of "brilliant." The veteran songwriter was also one of the brains behind Underwood's hit song "Something in the Water," which just won top Christian song at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards.
"It was such an honour to co-write ['Water'] with Carrie and Brett James," DeStefano said. "I have such enormous respect for both of them and to share this award with them is so humbling. I've been blessed to be a part of it and to have it affect people as positively as it has."