How Craig Campbell’s Mental Health Struggle Led to an Emotional New Song

During "Humans Being Human," Craig Campbell sings about finding what's real amid an endless social media scroll. The lyrics were inspired by his own search for honesty.

• Campbell dropped The Lost Files: Exhibit B project last summer.
• The 17 songs are from a list of co-writes that never quite found a place on an album previously.
• James McNair and Blake Bollinger helped him with the lyrics after an extremely difficult time in his life.

Talking to Taste of Country Nights host Evan Paul, Campbell referred to "Humans Being Human" as the most personal of the batch. He wrote it, almost reluctantly after spending seven days at OnSite, a therapy and wellness retreat one hour west of Nashville.

"The music business can chew you up and spit you out, and fortunately there are places you can go and kind of get your head screwed on right," he shares. "I went. I was gone for seven days and I got home on a Sunday and — my stupid self — I booked a co-write for Monday."

Campbell — whose best-known songs include "Outskirts of Heaven" and "Fish" — says he was still in a fog the next day, but showed up for work and told his co-writers what he'd experienced.

The first verse really hits his heart:

"It just talks about how — especially social media, how it's fake," Campbell shares. "It's a highlight reel. And it shouldn't be that way but a lot of people they pass judgement or they look over into somebody else's lane and say 'Look how great their life is' based off of social media and I just wish that wasn't the case."

"We like to keep our real lives / Tucked behind the curtain / We slide behind the painted smile / To hide all the hurtin' / But when you peel it all back / All the layers of illusion / We're just humans being human," he sings at the chorus.

Listen to the full interview above to learn how Campbell changed country newcomer Warren Zeiders' career, as well as why he's slightly envious of Oliver Anthony.