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Country Star Dustin Lynch Channels Bonnie & Clyde for 'Good Girl' Music Video

Photo credit: Daniel Vorlet
Photo credit: Daniel Vorlet

From Esquire

When you write a hit, you've got to put it out. At least that's what country star Dustin Lynch realized this spring. Between tour stops supporting Brad Paisley, Lynch was drafting tunes with songwriters Justin Ebach and Andy Albert when, as he recalls, a breezy tune about finding the right girl just sort of fell out. "They are rare birds," Lynch says of the cuts that come together so easily. "We went in and recorded it immediately."

But with his fourth album barely in the works-Current Mood, his third, which spawned two No. 1 country hits dropped just last year-Lynch found himself staring down a long road to release. "Man, it's great to know that we've got a hit in our pocket for the next couple of years," Lynch recalls someone from his camp saying at one point. He couldn't wait. "Good Girl" arrived with hardly a heads up in May.

Today, Esquire.com is thrilled to premiere the song's Bonnie & Clyde-inspired video.

The couple-gone-bad treatment flips the feel good anthem on its head. "It adds a tougher side to this song," agrees Lynch. "It was hard to not be right on the nose with ["Girl"] because it's a very fun and bubbly and light." The concept took a while to land on, then. With a laugh, he recalls: "We had several meetings where I thought I had great ideas and would go in and pitch and then people would start poking holes in it. It was tough, we're always trying to do something that people want to watch more than once. [Director] Mason Dixon knocked it out of the park."

Shot in the Mojave Desert, it also gave Lynch the opportunity to act for a few hours. "I didn't have to just sing the song 796 times into the camera," he says, enthusiastically, of teaming up with actress Angie Simms for the day as outlaws. "It was a new challenge-trying not to look like an idiot when I'm acting in a scene." Which is not to say he expects to go further down this road, though. "It was cool to step into those shoes for a day, now I'm back to doing what I know how to do."

Lynch is currently on tour, and this fall he kicks off a run of shows with Cole Swindell. A full list of dates is available on the singer's website. Later this month, he'll get inducted to the Grand Ole Opry. Lynch was surprised by the invite to join the institution in August. "There's a weight now," he says. "It's a heavy thing and to carry that torch and be an ambassador of country music. I take it seriously."

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