Kelsey Hart Looks to Cash In on New Radio Single ‘Love to Be That Guy’: ‘That Was a Standout’

Everybody’s selling.

The car dealer, the grocer, the cable company, the radio station and the record company’s radio promotion team are all hawking a product — be it a physical item or an inanimate construct such as air time or access.

Curb recording artist Kelsey Hart discovered two years ago that songwriters make sales, too.

Taylor Phillips (“Been by Now,” “Woman”) called him about “Love to Be That Guy,” a song he and three co-writers had just finished.

He wanted Hart to be the guy to sing it, but it was a hit song and they weren’t going to wait.

Hart needed to come out to the home of Ashley Gorley (“I Had Some Help,” “World on Fire”) before the night was over and record his voice on the demo.

Otherwise, they would pitch it to someone else.

Hart was obviously sold.

“I listened to it a couple times,” he remembers, “and then went out there and re-sang it.” It was an unplanned trip — roughly 40 miles each way, plus the time it would take to record the part.

Hart showed some strong commitment to a song he’d just heard.

But Phillips demonstrated his own belief in the song by applying conditions to the transaction.

“It was a classic sales pitch,” says co-writer Brad Clawson (“Up Down,” “Wannabe”).

“Put a deadline on it.” “Love to Be That Guy” emerged during a 2024 Tape Room Music writing retreat hosted by Gorley, who owns the company.

The writers broke into small groups, worked on a song, then when that one was completed, reassembled in different groups and started over again.