Luke Dick Was Writing 'True Companion' for Miranda Lambert — then Realized He Was Writing It for Himself (Exclusive)

"Sometimes the focus of your own artistic perspective of what that might be if you weren't collaborating can get a little confused," the musician explains

Luke Dick assumed Miranda Lambert wanted “True Companion.”

“I knew that Miranda would go there with me,” Dick, 44, tells PEOPLE about the writing of the cosmic love story. “Miranda is a fellow traveler like me in many ways. We're a similar age, we’re from a similar region, and we have similar perspectives. And basically, I always love to get a Miranda cut and be a part of her record.”

The song, which the pair wrote alongside fellow songwriter Natalie Hemby in the middle of the night back in October of 2020, looked and sounded as if it would ultimately find a home on the track list of Lambert’s Palomino album, which ended up being released in April 2022.

“You write so many songs when you are in creative collaboration with someone else,” says Dick, who regularly works with not only Lambert but also Eric Church, Dierks Bentley and Jackson Dean. “Sometimes the focus of your own artistic perspective of what that might be if you weren't collaborating can get a little confused.”

Related: Natalie Hemby Long Avoided the Spotlight and Is Glad She Did: 'Don't Know Where I'd Be If I Had Hit Early On'

Indeed, “True Companion” never found its earthly home on Palomino. Instead, it now will forever live on Dick’s album Lockeland, set to release March 15.

“When I laid all these songs out, I was like, ‘Oh, there you are,’” Dick says about “True Companion,” premiering exclusively on PEOPLE. “I had put a vocal on it and asked Miranda if she minded if I put it on my record. She immediately thought I should. And so, I changed the arrangement a bit and just felt it out and moved things around.”

And it became his.

Dick sings and plays almost every instrument on Lockeland — including electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, pedal steel, percussion, keyboards, drum programming, mandolin and banjo. And as one of the most respected songwriters in Nashville, Dick says that “True Companion” also hits a personal nerve right now, as it has always reminded him of his bride, Alison Love.

“A big part of our relationship has been adventuring,” the Oklahoman says of his new wife, who he married three months ago after dating for nearly seven years. “I've never traveled so well with somebody in terms of being able to flow and feel a new place together and experience wonder in the same way. We’ve had this connection from day one, this feeling of sort of traveling the universe together in the world."

Certainly, the whole idea of love has had several different connotations throughout Dick’s life.

“I've had a storied relationship with just love in general and my belief in it,” says Dick, who’s latest co-write was with Lambert and Lainey Wilson on their song “Good Horses.” “I was actually a sensitive, romantic kid. But love needs a place for expression and growth. Is love a settling? Is love a sparkly thing or does it always lose its sparkle? I was cynical about it for a good while, and then I met Allison. It’s about being in partnership with somebody who understands you and who is willing to grow with you and ride the various waves of life and emotion together.”

This is where Dick finds himself in this moment.

“This is definitely a perspective that is me right now,” he says of the lyrical backbone of “True Companion.” “I wanted to lean into that and to be able to express it, and then also put it out there into the world and have it be seen and heard and experienced by other people.”

And yes, he realizes that some people may be hearing his actual voice for the first time on “True Companion.”

“I've been singing in my car for a good 20 or 30 years,” he says with a laugh. “I feel at home in my voice.”

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