The song was penned after McBryde and her co-writers Jesse Rice and Nicolette Hayford decided to get to know each other better and share some "worst day" tales. It was inspired by a real-life bad-day story that happened to Jesse Rice. He was leaving Atlanta when his car died in the city of Dahlonega, Georgia. He saw a bar called the Crimson Moon, so he pulled in and saw that Shawn Mullins (best known for 1998 hit "Lullaby") was playing inside. He decided to stay and ended up meeting his future his wife there. "That's what you do with the worst day ever," McBryde told The Boot. "You flip it on its back. You raise your glass."

Ashley McBryde was kicking around Nashville for about 10 years before she got her big break. It happened with Eric Church heard her music and became a fan. In April 2017, he brought her on stage at his show in Chicago to sing her song "Bible And A .44." That earned her a record deal with Warner Music Nashville, which released "A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega" as her first single. It went to #30 on the Country chart, was named one of the 54 Best Songs of 2017 by the New York Times, and set the stage for her debut album, Girl Going Nowhere, in 2018.

McBryde spent a lot of time in little dive bars as she worked her way up in the music industry. She started playing shows when she was 19, often driving from her home in Arkansas to Memphis. She did her share of drinking as well, and these experiences formed the basis for many of her songs. Even after she quit drinking in 2022, McBryde still wrote about it - in 2023 she released a song called "Cool Little Bars."