Cole Swindell’s new song, “Girl Dad”, reflects on becoming a father while imagining a conversation with his late father, Bill Swindell. It follows the emotional territory of his 2016 hit “You Should Be Here”, showing how grief, career success, marriage and parenthood have shaped a new chapter in his life.

Swindell married Courtney Little in 2024 and their daughter, Rainey, was born last August. He developed the idea while golfing, using the lines “I met a girl, Dad” and “We’re having a girl, Dad” to link romance and fatherhood; he wrote the song on 7 January with Michael Tyler and Ben Stennis, who also shared experiences of losing fathers and becoming girl dads.