“Who You’d Be Today” by Kenny Chesney

“Who You’d Be Today,” a 2005 country song recorded by country music superstar Kenny Chesney, addresses the grief of the song’s narrator after losing someone close to him. The song appears on Chesney’s album “The Road and The Radio,” released in September of 2005. The album debuted at No. 1 on the US Top Country Albums and US Billboard 200 charts.

“Who You’d Be Today” was written by veteran songwriters Bill Luther and Aimee Mayo. Bill Luther has penned several hits recorded by Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Mark Wills and others. Aimee Mayo has written hits for Martina McBride, Sara Evans, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and more.

In “Who You’d Be Today” Chesney sings of missing the person who has died and imagining who they’d have become if they were still alive:

Would you see the world, would you chase your dreams
Settle down with a family
I wonder what would you name your babies

During the chorus, he rages against the injustice of his loved one dying before their time. Chesney’s voice soars, wailing;

It ain’t fair, you died too young
Like a story that had just begun
But death tore the pages all away

Credit: music.apple.com

“Who You’d Be Today” was the first single off “The Road and the Radio” album. It was Chesney’s highest-debuting single at that time, debuting at No. 26 on the Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and climbing its way up to No. 2 on the chart. The song especially resonated with fans who related to the experience of losing someone young.

The music video for “Who You’d Be Today” was directed by well-known country music video director Shaun Silva. It struck a chord with audiences, winning the 2005 Country Music Television’s Male Video of the Year award.

The video opens with a shot of two teenage boys at basketball practice, then cuts to Chesney singing, and then goes on to feature a series of snapshots of relationships between two people in which one person ultimately dies. A young couple is shown sitting together, then the video cuts to shots implying that the woman was killed in a car crash. The next shot shows a woman and a man on a bench talking to each other, then dissolves to scenes of the woman being pulled from a burning building and scenes implying that the man died in a fire. The narrative then returns to the boys playing basketball from the beginning of the video. The next shots show them as soldiers in combat. The video dissolves back to the two boys running up the basketball court. As they run, one of them disappears. It’s revealed that the other one has been playing alone, reflecting on days when his friend was still alive to play with him.

“Who You’d Be Today” is an emotionally affecting tune about losing someone too soon that ends with the narrator consoling himself at the end with the lines:

The only thing that gives me hope
Is I know I’ll see you again someday
Someday, someday

You can watch the music video for Kenny Chesney’s “Who You’d Be Today” below.