Cole Swindell‘s  “She Had Me At Heads Carolina”  won the first ACM Award of the night for Song of the Year! Swindell wrote the song with Thomas Rhett, Ashley Gorley and Jesse Frasure, with Mark D. Sanders and Tim Nichols, the writers of Jo Dee Messina‘s “Heads Carolina, Tails California,” also being credited on the track.

“I wouldn’t have this song without them,” Swindell said from stage. “But I moved to Nashville, Tennessee because I wanted to be a songwriter, and that’s what this award is. Jo Dee, we wouldn’t have this song without you making the original song a hit. Thank you so much. Everybody on my team, thank you all. And there’s a kid that’s out there watching tonight, and they’re going to get inspired by somebody’s song, and they’re going to follow it up and chase a dream like we all have. God bless you all, and God bless country music.”

Swindell received the trophy after he and Messina performed a remix of Swindell’s original version. Perhaps surprisingly, Swindell released the song before he ever got to talk to Messina in person.

“I finally got her contact info,” Swindell said at a media event last year.  “I had been wanting to reach out to her, and tell her what a fan I was. I think I might have met her at a festival years ago, briefly, when I was selling t-shirts. We don’t really know each other … I just got her number and just sent her a text letting her know that it was me and that I’ve been wanting to reach out and that I finally got her contact.

“[I] just let her know what a fan I was and that the original song, without that, obviously, I would have never had this idea,” he continued. “I just wanted her to know I wanted her to be as much of a part of it as she wanted to be. Or if not at all, that’s fine too.”

Messina appears in the video for “She Had Me At Heads Carolina.” The song is from Swindell’s latest Stereotype album, out now. Find all of Swindell’s music and tour dates at ColeSwindell.com.

Read ‘Cole Swindell: 11 Things to Know About the Country Music Star’ here.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Academy of Country Music