NASHVILLE, Tenn. -  From the second superstar Carrie Underwood opened the "Blown Away" file in her email and took a listen, she knew it had to be hers.

"I listened to it, loved it, called my manager and said I have to have it. It's just dramatic, juicy, and something so cinematic about it. You can see it play out in your head as listening to it. I was like, I an't imagine anyone singing it, it has to be me, I have to sing this song" says Underwood.

Underwood performs the song with such passion, it's hard to believe she didn't write it. But that credit goes to Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins. They are no stranger to Underwood hits. The duo's first big break was her 2007 hit song "Before He Cheats".

When they sat down in the writing session that produced "Blown Away", their intent was to write another hit specifically for Underwood.

"Carrie was about 2 or 3 singles into her 3rd record. She hadn't announced she was looking for songs we just knew the song search would start soon. I remember we wanted a track as cool as Coldplay, melody as cool as Rhiana and a lyric like it belongs on a Carrie Underwood record" says Kear.

The session started off with Tompkins creating strings and drums.
They say the sound effects naturally came next. Creating the perfect - storm.

"We didn't have a hook. It's not like we were like blown away lets go with that. We started with the dry lightning cracks across the sky. That was first we wrote and we wrote there forward" explains Kear.

The only hesitation they had was painting themselves into a corner by using Underwoods home state of Oklahoma in the lyrics.

"That section wrote fast and then stopped and we had a discussion of whether we wanted to leave it in. In the end we talked about how that is the entire point of this session, to write a song that we think would make a good Carrie Underwood song, lets go with it. That was the best decision we made that day" says Kear.

Many songs come from a very personal place. For Kear writing blown away was totally fictional. Just as it was for Underwood to perform it.

"I love the song because I wasn't speaking the words I and me. I was telling a story" says Underwood.

For Tompkins,  the topic was much more personal. "I grew up with and around a lot of alcoholism. I went to aa meetings with my family and heard all kinds of things I shouldn't hear at that age. I picked up a lot of real life stuff."

After the two day writing session the guys had mixed feelings about how the song turned out.

"I thought from moment we wrote it we had something special" says Kear. "I had some doubts just because the type of song it was" says Tompkins.

    In the end, Underwood changed very little. "There were lighting and thunder rolls, rain, siren, all that went away" says Tompkins.

It seems everything about the song was just meant to be. "I was meant to hear that song and record it. All works together" says Underwood.
Story Behind The Song: Blown Away