Soldier-inspired 'I Drive Your Truck' named Song of the Year

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Lee Brice's hit song "I Drive Your Truck," which was inspired by former Fort Drum Soldier and Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. 1st Class Jared C. Monti, was named Song of the Year during the 49th annual Academy of Country Music awards show Sunday night.

The song, which was written by Connie Harrington, Jessi Alexander and Jimmy Yeary, received the same honor in November during the industry's other major awards show -- the Country Music Association Awards in Nashville.

"Having this song named ACM Song of the Year is a great honor for me and my co-writers," Harrington, the song's principal songwriter, told The Mountaineer after returning to Nashville this week. "We are humbled by this recognition and the journey this song has taken.

"Most of all, however, it is our hope that this song continues to bring honor to our fallen Soldiers and the Gold Star Families left behind," Harrington said. "We acknowledge their sacrifice."

Brice, who was nominated for ACM's Male Vocalist of the Year, offered a sripped-down acoustic version of "I Drive Your Truck" during Sunday's star-studded event in Las Vegas.

The song was also nominated for Video of the Year and Single Record of the Year.

The heart of "I Drive Your Truck" was conceived over Memorial Day weekend three years ago, when Harrington, a Nashville-based songwriter with more than a dozen No. 1 songs in multiple genres, was listening to National Public Radio in her car.

Monti's father, who was at his son's gravesite in Bourne, Mass., was describing for a reporter how he liked to drive his son's truck as a way of staying close to him.

"What can I tell you, it's just … it's him," Paul Monti said at the time regarding his son's black Dodge Ram pickup. "It's got his DNA all over it. I love driving it because it reminds me of him, though I don't need the truck to remind me of him. I think about him every hour of every day."

Harrington said she fought tears as she jotted down some thoughts. In the days that followed, she would enlist the help of Alexander and Yeary.

"You have these songs that just get to the core of you in your heart and you feel like you know you have got something special -- you want to write it as soon as possible," Harrington explained. "It's a quicker process when you write with co-writers. You end up, oftentimes, with something that you wouldn't have had on your own."

Aside from the special song, Monti's legacy is imparted in spirit and in stone at Fort Drum.

Commanders at 3rd Brigade Combat Team share Monti's values with new Soldiers checking into the unit while Fort Drum's Pine Plains Physical Fitness Center was officially renamed Monti Physical Fitness Center four years ago.

Once a team leader with 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (LI), Monti was killed June 21, 2006, while desperately attempting to rescue one of his wounded Soldiers following an ambush by a much larger enemy force in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan.

His parents, Paul and Janet Monti, received the Medal of Honor on their son's behalf during a ceremony at the White House in 2009.

Paul Monti, who created the SFC Jared C. Monti Memorial Scholarship Fund several years ago to help needy students and military-oriented charities, told The Mountaineer last year that "I Drive Your Truck" honors every single Gold Star Family in the country.

"They all hold on to something," he said, "whether it's a truck, a car, dog tags, CDs, a baseball glove, a teddy bear, whatever it is, all of us hold on to something from our child.

"The important thing for me is that this honors all of our fallen, and especially the Gold Star Families, who have to live with that pain for the rest of their lives," he said.