The song is an up-tempo song in which the narrator lists off various politically oriented issues in the United States, such as illegal immigration, political correctness, lawsuits, rising gasoline prices and the decreased importance of religion, but states that he is still proud to live in America. It also references Donald Trump's outlash at the 1996 Miss Universe winner, Alicia Machado's slight weight gain. Dave Pahanish and Joe West, the writers, had originally titled the song "American Life" when they submitted the demo to Keith. Pahanish and West talked about "the funny, but irritating, things in life that really tick people off." Keith also had the song on his iPod a year before recording it.
Critical reception
The song has received mixed reviews from music critics. Dan Milliken of Country Universe gave it mixed review. In his review, he says that the intro sounded like a "hamster dance" version of Reba McEntire's "Strange", and that the rest of it sounded like a car commercial. He also said that he could not tell if the song's lyric was an attempt to be serious or satirical: "I can’t say I don’t find it all amusing on some strange level. There seems to have been a serious attempt to make social commentary here, and it was pretty hit-or-miss, or maybe more of one than the other, depending on your perspective." He ultimately declined to give the song a letter grade. Jed Gottlieb of The Boston Globe said that the song "lets him make fun of his status as a politicalpunching bag while mocking both the right and left." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic viewed it positively, saying that it was not "jingoistic" and that it "casts a cynical eyenot celebrating down-home values but wondering where we're all headed"
Music video
The song's music video debuted on the television network CMT on August 13, 2009. Directed by Michael Salomon, it is animated save the very beginning and ending in a style of the JibJab online cartoons. The song's music video consisted of Keith and three men riding motorcycles while passing multiple scenes related to the song's lyrics. Scenes include evangelistPat Robertson riding on former United States President George W. Bush's back, and Wall Street, where President Barack Obama is being hoisted in the air by bankers. The last scene of the video shows Keith falling into the boat full of American flags, and then the foreign dictators Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong-il, and Fidel Castro portrayed as pirates on larger ships start shooting him with cannons. Keith passes through a set of television monitors, which all have political talk shows on, and the hosts are fighting each other. The video ends with the sign reading "Thanks for visiting America... y'all come back now". Keith told Country Weekly magazine that he was criticized by "blogger terrorists" the day that the video was released, adding, "But they really can't get a fire started in the direction they want to go because the video makes fun of everybody." The song's reference to Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants and the common misconception that the lawsuit was frivolous led to a clip of the music video being used in an episode of Adam Ruins Everything which deals with the case.
Chart performance
"American Ride" debuted at No. 38 on the U.S. BillboardHot Country Songs chart for the chart week of July 18, 2009, and reached No. 1 on the chart week of October 10, 2009, becoming his 19th Number One hit. It also debuted at No. 60 on the Swedish Singles Chart for the week of December 19, 2010.
