Darius Rucker's 'True Believers' lyrics, like many great country songs, hit close to home. The new Opry addition penned the song with hit songwriter Josh Kear, and it's the first single from his forthcoming third studio album, slated for release in January.

"Darius and I had written a few songs before [we wrote this one]," Kear tells Taste of Country of writing 'True Believers.' "I actually flew down to South Carolina to his house. We sat there and wrote some songs that day. That was just one of them."

"Josh is an amazing, amazing songwriter," Rucker says, praising his friend. "He came to Charleston to write with me. We sat around, and Josh always has a million ideas. The thing that I love about Josh is that his voice is sick! He sings every [demo on our songs] that I cut, so when I record it, I always have to sing it like two steps lower because his vocals are so high [laughs]."

The former Hootie frontman continues, "He had a great idea that day. He came in and said, 'What do you think about this idea?' I was like, 'Yeah, let's do that!' It was easy for me because we were just writing my life and how I try to live."

"Church bells ringing on our wedding day / Climbed in that limo and we rode away / Guess you'll always hear some people say / They're never gonna make it / We settled in and we settled down / In this quiet little seaside town / You were the rock I built my world around / And life won't ever break it," they wrote in the opening 'True Believers' lyrics.

"It was funny because we had a different second verse originally," says Rucker. "We thought about it, and thought we should change what we had written the first time. We did it over the internet. I typed him and idea and he would type me back. It was like yeah … yeah … OK! That was the first time I’d really done anything like that. It was really cool."

"We are one heartbeat in the darkness / We are one lasting answered prayer / We are one unbroken promise / We are two, true believers," they wrote in the chorus.

"We finished it pretty quickly," Kear recalls of the song. "Darius sat there and went, 'That's going to be a big song!' Of course you try to not get excited, so you sit there and go, 'That would be great! That would be awesome!' He was like, 'No, seriously ... that's going to be really big for me! I love this thing!' Then I thought, 'Great! Then we're done here. I need to get out of here before I screw anything up!' [laughs] It was really cool. He was a fun hang and easy to work with. They made a great record out of it."

"‘True Believers’ is a song for everybody," Rucker says, clarifying, "It’s an anthem for everybody."

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