In 2009, Jack Ingram followed his Top 10 hit "Barefoot and Crazy" with something a bit more sentimental: "Seeing Stars," a duet with one of Ingram's musical heroes, Patty Griffin. The song was written by Ingram and Chris Tompkins, and appears on Ingram's Big Dreams & High Hopes album, released in August of 2009. Below, Ingram tells The Boot about how the song came to be.

It just takes you up into the sky, close to heaven. It's talking about how we're all pretty guilty of only asking for help from above in times of distress, but we ask anyway. That's a comforting thing.

[Chris] was telling me that he was a big fan of that song of mine about stars. Well, not wanting to turn down a compliment, I said, "Thanks, man." And in my mind, I started turning the wheels and going, "Hmmmm, I don't have a song about stars!" [Laughs] Then I was having this awkward conversation in my head, like, "Do I tell him? Or do I just let it go?"

But I couldn't let it go, so about 15 minutes later, we're talking about something completely different, and I go, "Hey man, I've just got to tell you -- I don't have a song about stars." He probably thought I was some kind of maniac or anxiety-ridden freak, but -- long story short -- I said, "But you know, that idea about writing a song about stars, that's a damn good idea, why don't we go there?"

And we did, and that's how the song got written.

This story was originally written by Beville Darden, and revised by Angela Stefano.