Red Clay Strays’ Dolly Parton Name-Drop Is Really a Song About Coming Home [Watch]

For the Red Clay Strays, Dolly Parton wasn't just a country music icon.

Her name became a sign that home was finally close.

The Mobile, Alabama, band recently explained the personal meaning behind the Dolly Parton Bridge, which they immortalized in their song "Stone's Throw."

The Dolly Parton Connection

The "Dolly Parton Bridge" is the local nickname for the General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge in Alabama.

Read More: See Photos of Tributes to Dolly Parton Nationwide

It carries I-65 South just before Mobile, making it a familiar sight for the Red Clay Strays whenever they returned from the road.

After spending months traveling, seeing that bridge meant something special.

Here's what the 'Dolly Parton Bridge' means in the song 'Stone's Throw.' The Dolly Parton Bridge is a bridge in I-65 South you hit right before getting to Mobile, Alabama. We'd be out on the road for months at a time. Tired and ready to get home. Counting miles. And when we got to that bridge, we knew we were almost home.

That's what the Dolly Parton reference means in "Stone's Throw": not just a name-drop, but the feeling of finally being almost home.

For a band that spends so much time on the road, that bridge became a marker — one that told them they were getting close to the place they had been missing.

And now, following Dolly's death at 80 on Aug. 25, the song carries an even more poignant connection to the country icon.

Read More: Dolly Knew Best: The 14 Best Dolly Parton Quotes

Dolly's influence on country music is undeniable, but for the Red Clay Strays, her name represented something much more personal: home.

Full lyrics to 'Stone's Throw'

If you can call what we got last night sleep
Well, we got a few hours
Blurred lines, I'm fighting like hell, to try and keep my eyes wide open
We're always running from, running to, running late, or running out of
It's the return that keeps us going

We've been gone for way too long
Can't count all the roads we've been down
Try to keep it between the ditches til the Dolly Parton Bridge is in the front window
We've been gone for way too long
Can't count all the roads we've been down
But now we're a stone's throw
A stone's throw from home

Been counting down hours for hours
Now, so close we can almost tastе it
Only 20 odd mile marks left for us to pass
Everything that wе've been needing and missing and wanting is just ahead waiting
Giving us even more reason to drive slower leaving than we do coming back

We've been gone for way too long
Can't count all the roads we've been down
Try to keep it between the ditches til the Dolly Parton Bridge is in the front window
We've been gone for way too long
Can't count all the roads we've been down
But now we're a stone's throw
A stone's throw from home

Red Clay Stray's 'Stone's Throw' Music Video: