When Rodney Atkins released “Watching You” in 2006, he had no idea that it would have such a resurgence almost 20 years later. The song was written as a response to something that happened with his son Elijah, who was just four years old when Atkins penned the song.

At the time, Atkins had been recording his hit, “If You’re Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows),” with Elijah hanging out with his dad as he was working on the song. Unfortunately, Elijah picked up on the words, and was innocently singing, “If you’re going through hell, keep on going,” causing the child’s teacher to speak to Atkins after school one day about the song.

“He got embarrassed. And so we talked about it,” Atkins recalls to Everything Nash. He tried to explain to Elijah why he shouldn’t sing that specific song, which he was still thinking about when he went into the writing room the next day with Steve Dean and Brian White.

“We talked about it,” Atkins recalls. “And that song kind of just fell out. It was just a story, and a day of our life.”

Atkins liked “Watching You” as soon as he wrote it, but he never imagined the song would turn into the hit it was, becoming Billboard‘s No. 1 song in 2007.

“The song’s a weird song,” Atkins concedes. “The way it’s written, if you look at the structure of it and how it rhymes, it’s just a different thing. And I never intended any human on earth to hear it but him. So it was crazy that it connected with folks. ”

But when Atkins performed the song with his son at the Ryman a few months ago, the 56-year-old couldn’t have predicted that the song, this time singing with the son who inspired the song, would take on a life of its own.

“The Ryman, playing the Opry, singing in church always makes me nervous,” Atkins shares. “I said, ‘You can do it. Just come out. I’m gonna tell people about the duet, but I’m not gonna introduce you. And you just come out and start singing it’.’ And he came out at the Ryman, and he kind of froze. He looked at me, and I started mouthing the words, and then he started singing. But that was his first time ever in front of a crowd. I couldn’t believe it.”

After their performance, due to fan demand, Atkins released a new version, “Watching You 2.0,” this time with Elijah. Even better, the song is on a new album Atkins just completed.

“I just finished a whole new album, which ‘Watching You 2.0’ is gonna go on this record,” Atkins reveals. “The album is called True South. And so ‘True South’ is out there now on DSPs [Digital Service Providers]. It is just a fun record. There are a couple of ballads, but it’s mostly just like – I love we songs, we’re in this together, inclusive things. Not us against you. And this album is just a whole lot of that. It’s different forms of ‘These Are My People,’ I think, singing songs together. There some anthems in there. Just a lot of fun songs, man. And it’s been a blast playing these songs live. So the whole album will be out this fall. I’m not even sure what the date is.”

Atkins is excited about his next musical chapter, and the new opportunities presented to him, and not just because of “Watching You 2.0.” The Tennessee native has also begun using TikTok and other social media platforms, thanks in large part to his wife, Rose Falcon.

“My wife pays a lot attention,” Atkins boasts. “She studies a lot of stuff..”

Atkins started performing some of his songs that Falcon began posting, with incredible results.

“I started looking at that and the comments – it truly changed my perspective on how I see myself as an artist, because people talked about how important these songs are,”  Atkins says. “We released some acoustic versions of songs … the engagement was unbelievable. And it changes everything really, on how you view what these songs mean to people.”

“As the social media numbers kept coming up, and every post almost is going viral in some way,” he continues. “And it’s just the people. It’s them connecting with the people and the live shows. You can feel that whole thing happening. It lifts you up. It fires you up. It’s cool because technically where I am, I shouldn’t be really going up in social media, but it’s so amazing to witness it, to sit back and be a part of it. And it’s fun. I have a blast doing TikTok stuff.”

Find “Watching You 2.0” and all of Atkins’ music and upcoming shows at RodneyAtkins.com.

Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Photo Credit: CMA / Kayla Schoen