The Lone Bellow had "stories we wanted to tell" on their upcoming album Half Moon Light, the group's Zach Williams tells Billboard. And the track "Good Times," premiering exclusively on Billboard today (Jan. 9), is actually a song about being told some of those stories over the years.
"I've had some fun late-night conversations and the great joy of hearing epic stories told by adventurous souls," Williams, who initially wrote the rhythmic, joyous "Good Times" as a poem, tells Billboard. "Some were told on old boats way out in the middle of the ocean, some in Irish pubs in Manhattan, some in backyards down south, some on hospital beds. So the song's just a celebration of these stories and these people who grabbed life by the horns and let no good time slip away."
The singer-guitarist adds that many of the stories came from Peter Pulitzer, the late publishing heir, while Williams was serving as a hand on his fishing boat during the early ‘00s. "The dude was a complicated man -- a plane-crashing, pirate-fighting, bloodthirsty legend," Williams recalls. "He had all these epic, near-death experiences throughout his life. If you stayed up late enough he would open up and start telling all these insane stories that I still love."