Cole Swindell is channeling both heartache and joy into his latest release, “Girl Dad,” a deeply personal track set to drop in full on June 19 via Warner Records Nashville.
The song picks up an emotional thread Swindell first wove in his 2015 hit “You Should Be Here,” which was inspired by the unexpected death of his father in 2013. More than a decade later, Swindell is revisiting that grief — this time measured against the life milestones his dad never got to witness.
In a series of Instagram teasers, Swindell posed a question that shapes the song’s entire narrative. “If my Dad could see me now I’d like to think he’d be proud of where I am in life,” he wrote. “Especially these last few years. If I could update him on what it all looks like these days…What would I say?”
One teaser appears to show the music video’s opening, with Swindell’s tour bus pulling up to the cemetery where his father is buried. Another clip features lyrics that pull directly from the milestones he’s lived: “I met a girl, Dad, I told her I loved her/ We got married up in California/ Sunset on her white dress, God it was beautiful/ We saved a cold one and a chair for ya/ And I know you’re looking down from up there, I believe it/ And I just wish that I could see you see this/ A little black and white picture that I wanted so bad to tell you in person/ We’re having a girl, Dad.”
Those milestones are rooted in real life. Swindell married Courtney Little in June 2024, and the couple welcomed their daughter, Rainey Gail Swindell, in August 2025. The song transforms those chapters into a letter to a father who never got to read it.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source coyotecountrylv.com ’
