"Guitar Town" is the CB handle for the city of Nashville, which is where Earle got the title.
Earle said: "I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on the Born In The USA tour, and it dawned on me; he opened with 'Born In The U.S.A.,' and it was like this, that's what I need to do! I need to write a beginning and an end for this record and then the rest of the songs will fall in to place. So, I wrote 'Guitar Town' specifically to open the record and open the show. I spent the early part of the '80s touring in a van, getting chased down Black Mountain Pass by a U-Haul trailer. Truck drivers, or anybody that travels for a living, relate to that line... the motel tan is no tan at all."
Earle had no idea this song would become so popular. "I just thought I was writing a song that was going to open my tour and open my record," he told Songfacts. "It had such a utilitarian reason to exist for me that I thought that was it. So I was shocked when they made it a single and shocked when it was a hit."
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