How Jordan Davis's 'Mess' Started With a Borrowed Guitar in a Basement
Billboard has published a behind-the-scenes account of how Jordan Davis's song "Mess" was written, and it starts with a guitar that nobody had planned to play. The piece, from Billboard's Makin' Tracks series on how songs get made, appeared on October 21, 2026.
The writing session took place on May 6 in the basement studio at Universal Music Publishing Nashville. Jacob Davis, the singer's brother, and Travis Wood wrote the song with Paul DiGiovanni, Davis's longtime producer. The session got going when DiGiovanni picked up an old parts-caster Telecaster, a guitar assembled from mismatched components, that was in the room.
The first working title was "Disaster." Wood suggested "Mess" instead, because it was easier to sing. DiGiovanni proposed the three-word lead-in "Baby, could you" for the pre-chorus, the short section that leads into the chorus. Jacob Davis sang the melody on the first demo recording.
The hook runs: "Go ahead, leave me like the bed / Make me a mess." Billboard's Country Update bulletin of October 19, 2026 read the image of untucked, untidy sheets as a metaphor for the song's narrator and his addiction.
Universal Music Canada said the song was released as a single on August 13, 2026. MCA Nashville, the label, announced it the following day, describing Davis as a multi-platinum singer-songwriter. An official lyric video is available on YouTube, and the track runs 2 minutes 39 seconds on Spotify. Billboard's Country Update of October 5, 2026 listed "Mess" as published by MCA Nashville, with DiGiovanni, both Davises and Wood credited as writers.
Billboard reports that Davis wanted to take more chances while preparing his next album, and that his collaborators were generally happy to go along. That is the thread the Makin' Tracks piece follows: a producer with a found guitar, a brother with a melody, and a title that changed on the way to the finished song.
For the people in that basement, the song's first day was an ordinary session with a borrowed instrument and a few rough ideas. Those ideas are now a single that listeners can stream, and the writing credits show exactly who came up with what.
