The title is an archaic military acronym that means "kiss my ass, guys, you're on your own." Hayes wrote the song with Scott Davis and John Evans. They found the term when they were looking through an old military dictionary.
The song is a chorus-less narrative told from the perspective of a young man who finds himself in the army and goes though a hallucination when he is wounded in battle. The "KMAG YOYO" lyric appears just once in the song, during a passage where the soldier things he is flying into space. In our interview with Hayes Carll, he said, "I thought it was a pretty great title because it just sums up the whole thing." Carll adds that the acronym also fit the theme of the album, which is why it was used for the title. He says that for a while, the whole album concept was "somebody just checking out from society and moving out to the desert and saying, 'F--k it, I'm going on my own on this."
Hayes was never in the military, but his father served in the Navy. The song doesn't glamorize the military experience, but instead shows how easy it can be to find yourself in uniform and wondering how you got there. Carll has made it clear that he has great respect for military personnel - t concerts, he has dedicated the song to those who have served.
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