Spoiler Alert: This song is a bit of a “tear-jerker” so have your tissues ready! The song was written by Wood Newton and Thom Shepherd and was first recorded by American country music artist David Ball back in 2001. The song tells the story of a man who answered an advertisement for an old Chevy, which turns out to be a 1966 Corvette. The previous owner was Private Andrew Malone, who fought in the Vietnam war.
The song was first released only a few weeks before the September 11 attacks in New York. This helped raise the popularity of the song due to the military theme of its story and the emotions of the audience looking for patriotic songs at the time. The song reached a peak position of number 2 on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs and also to number 36 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
One of the song’s writers, Wood Newton, said “When you’re young and you’re living life on the edge, the ultimate balance of things is to have that hot car, which equals pretty girls. It’s the American dream, man.” The song was very close to Newton’s heart as his cousin had died crashing the Corvette his father had recently bought him. He had just returned home from his tour of duty. Newton also received an email from a woman whose son had just shipped out for action. She tells Newton “He bought him a Corvette and said, ‘I want to own one of these before I die.’ “
David Ball performs Private Malone to a Captivated Crowd
“For every dream that’s shattered, another one comes true,
This car was once a dream of mine, now it belongs to you.
And though you may take her and make her your own,
You’ll always be riding with Private Malone.”
Several stories have been circulated about the reasons Wood Newton decided to pen the song. He spoke about being in college during the era of the Vietnam war and recalled the impact the war had on his generation. He also talks about following a website about the restoration of a sixty-six Corvette. He additionally recalls a “ghost” story he heard about a restored Corvette that, late at night, would reset its radio untouched to another particular station. It was as if the car was haunted. He and co-writer Thom Shepherd put together a lot of these thoughts to come up with their song about Private Malone. The name Malone was chosen by Shepherd because it rhymed with “home”.