George Strait just released his new box set, Strait Out of the Box: Part 2, last Friday (November 18th), and one of the new songs garnering a lot of attention is “Kicked Outta Country,” which he co-wrote with Jamey Johnson after a conversation they had one night.

George says he’s been very fortunate and certainly very blessed to have the career he has right now. “It’s just something that happens at some point in everyone’s career. It doesn’t mean I have to like it, but ‘cause I always expected it was gonna come at some point. It’s a little hard to take after all these years to release something at radio, and it doesn’t get played anymore because for so long I just kinda got used to hearing things on the radio,” says George. “Anyway, the song’s kinda about that. I’ve been very fortunate, don’t get me wrong. I’ve had a lot of longevity in this business, and I’m very grateful for it. I’ve got a lot of great fans out there who still support me. They come out to my shows in Vegas and it’s a great night. It’s great seeing ‘em, and I’m very blessed.”

King George, who began his career before his 1981 hit “Unwound” hit the airwaves, says he still loves making music and will continue to do so as long as his fans want it.

The Country Music Hall of Famer and entertainer is definitely one of the hippest guys around. For example, George and Jamey weren’t in the same room, hell, probably not even the same state when they wrote the song. They did it by texting lyrics back and forth. “We wrote it all with texting,” says George. “We wrote the whole song texting. [laughs] Well, I mean people do it all the time now. It’s so common. I see Bubba Skyping and writing with somebody somewhere and it’s just so easy to do. Yeah, I just started scribbling stuff down and I’d send it, he’d send something back, I’d send something back and that’s the way it happened.”

I just wrote a new song today
I pulled out my old guitar, and I started to play
Pressing my fingers into the strings
I felt the feeling a country song brings

I did some Jones, and one for The Hag
Waylon and Willie, and the great Johnny Cash
They all got kicked outta country back then
But then one day country came calling again

Cash stomped out the footlights
Haggard, he had a ball
And Willie and Waylon, they stole the nation
And Jones showed up after all

The other new song on Strait Out of the Box Part Two is “Gotta Go Through Hell,” which George co-wrote with his son, Bubba, and iconic tunesmith Dean Dillon.

Strait Out of the Box Part Two, which also features his current single “Goin’, Goin’, Gone,” is available now exclusively through Walmart.