EXCLUSIVE: Matt Stell Admits The Music Video For New Single "Breakin' In Boots" Was Inspired By Country Icon Toby Keith

The country star sat down with All Country News to spill all the details on his high octane new single.

 PHOTO CREDIT: DAVID MCCLISTER

Country crooner Matt Stell has quickly made his mark on the genre as one of only eight new artists in the past six years to have consecutive No. 1s with two back-to-back chart-toppers. Hoping to continue that impressive streak, the Arkansas native's latest single "Breakin' In Boots" truly packs a punch.

The heart thumping heartbreaker was actually inspired from a solo night out at a Music City watering hole. "I was at one of my little local haunts there in Midtown," Matt told All Country News. "I was there by myself watching a ball game. I was getting ready to tab out and leave, then I saw this girl across the bar, and she had boots on kind of like mine. I knew she was somebody I want to say what's up to." Sadly, the girl left while Matt was paying his tab, but Stell was left with a great song idea.

As Music City fate would have it, Matt found himself in the writers room with friends and collaborators Ben Stennis, Nate Cyphert, and Joe Fox. "Ben, thought of this idea of she'll leave your heartbreaking in your boots. He just didn't know what it meant," Matt laughs, as he had just felt the feeling days before. Talk about a happy accident. 

Don't think that she doesn't 'cause she knows what she's doin'

She'll burn you like the bourbon in the bottle she's shootin'

She's a cowboy killer, that's the cold-hard truth

You can try to love her

But she'll leave your heart breakin' in boots (your heart breakin' in boots)

Bringing the painfully relatable story to life, Matt teamed up with friend and CMA Award-winning director Dustin Haney. The cheeky music video was filmed Punches n’ Bunches Boxing Studio in Nashville, TN and features the 6 foot 9 Stell getting beat up. Stuck on his heartache, Matt becomes apart from a retro boxing video game paired against the heartbreaker, even getting hit for real a handful of times.

"I always love when those music videos kind of tell the story, but in a way that sort of adds to the story or takes it from a different perspective," Matt admits. A fan of 2000s country, Matt channeled his inner country icon in order to help bring the story to life. Toby Keith's videos I always thought were really great. They always had like a tongue in cheek thing to them. I think the fact that the music video could have a sense of humor and really added to it."

The songs truly packs a punch even at country radio, with an impressive 55 adds its first week. A career high for Stell. While Matt shares that radio success is a goal for 2024, his main goal is putting out music that feels the most authentic to him. "I'm not going to compromise in making the best songs I can. I want to keep reaching for the bar that I set for myself. I've got a bunch of new music coming out this year. Song that touch on all kind of things that matter to me. Whether it's some stuff from my childhood or it's heartbreak stuff. All of those things are real, and I want to present in the most authentic way I can."