Country music has long had a fascination with fire. Whether it be outside bonfires or a deadly blaze, artists within the genre have been writing hit songs about flames for the past several decades; after all, it's an age-old metaphor!

Below, take a look at The Boot's picks for country's best songs about fire. We've always known that country music can be scorching hot, and these songs prove it!

  • 10

    "Picture to Burn"

    Taylor Swift

    Swift let the world know with this song that if a boy hurt her, she'd return with a scorching retaliation -- quite literally. The now-pop superstar admits that the tune, which includes lyrics such as, "You're a redneck heartbreak / Who's really bad at lying / So watch me strike a match / On all my wasted time / As far as I'm concerned you're / Just another picture to burn," was written about her high school flame, Jordan.

  • 9

    "Midnight Fire"

    Steve Wariner

    The title track of Wariner's sophomore album, this song puts a sexy spin on a forbidden affair: "Wearing someone else's rings / And our hearts are filled with doubt," he sings. "But the fire's getting hotter, and we just can't put it out." "Midnight Fire" became Wariner's fourth Top 5 hit.

  • 8

    "I'm on Fire"

    Rascal Flatts

    Included on their 2014 Rewind album, this Flatts song takes burning desire to an entirely new level. Thanks to lyrics such as, "Girl, you're turnin' me on / Better sound the alarm / 'Cause this whole place is going up / Girl, you got the heat on / With your glass half gone / What you got is so hot to the touch / You're burnin' up and / I'm on fire, I'm on fire, I'm on fire," the song quickly became a fan favorite, even without becoming a single.

  • 7

    "Old Flame"

    Alabama

    The debut single from Alabama's 1981 album, Feels So Right, "Old Flame" shines a light on the heartbreak of falling in love with someone who is in love with someone else. Powerful lyrics such as, "'Cause there's an old flame burnin' in your eyes / That tears can't drown and makeup can't disguise / Now that old flame might not be stronger / But it's been burnin' longer / Than any spark I might have started in your eyes," helped make "Old Flame" Alabama's third consecutive No. 1 hit.

  • 6

    "Burning House"

    Cam

    Cam blazed up the charts with "Burning House," her first No. 1 hit. Written about a dream she actually had, about regretting the painful way she ended a relationship, Cam says that penning the song's lyrics -- "I've been sleepwalking / Too close to the fire / But it's the only place that I can hold you tight / In this burning house" -- was therapeutic for her.

    "It was a therapy session for me while we were doing it," Cam tells The Boot about writing the song. "It’s already vulnerable, and it’s super embarrassing to sit there with your really close friends and be like, 'Well, let me explain why I messed up this part of my life.'"

  • 5

    "Feel That Fire"

    Dierks Bentley

    "Feel That Fire" was the debut single and title track of Bentley's fourth studio album. Bentley wrote the song with Brett Beavers and the Warren Brothers, and has his wife Cassidy to thank for, in part, inspiring lines such as, "But she needs to feel that fire / The one that lets her know for sure / She's everything I want and more / A real desire / Does she know I'd walk alone out on the wire / To make her feel that fire?"

    "The theme of the whole song is about girls wanting this or that," Bentley tells The Boot. "It was a fun song to write because no one had a real agenda. It was more about four guys, who all have different understandings and misunderstandings of the opposite sex, and trying to put those into a song."

  • 4

    "Kerosene"

    Miranda Lambert

    "Kerosene" showed the fiery side of Lambert's personality. Singing, "Now I don't hate the one who left / You can't hate someone who's dead / He's out there holding onto someone, I'm holding up my smoking gun / I'll find somewhere to lay my blame the day she changes her last name," the now-superstar earned her first Top 15 single and first platinum-selling hit with this tune, the title track of her debut album.

  • 3

    "Standing Outside the Fire"

    Garth Brooks

    Brooks co-wrote this song with Jenny Yates and included it on his 1993 In Pieces album. Of the inspiration for the tune, Brooks explains, "In a conversation, I was describing something that I thought was really close, but for me, it just stood outside the fire. There was that brilliant moment of silence when we just looked at each other and smiled. Within an hour and half, this song was written."

  • 2

    "The Fireman"

    George Strait

    This tongue-in-cheek tune, which says, "Well, they call me the fireman, that's my name / Making my rounds all over town, putting out old flames / Well, everybody'd like to have a what I got / I can cool 'em down when they're smold'ring hot / I'm the fireman, that's my name," was the final single from Strait's fourth studio album, Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind. A favorite among other artists as well, "The Fireman" has been covered in live shows by Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, among others, and performed as a duet by Brad Paisley and Blake Shelton.

  • 1

    "Ring of Fire"

    Johnny Cash

    Released in 1963, "Ring of Fire" is perhaps the song that Cash is best known for, and with good reason: Written by his future wife, June Carter, and Merle Kilgore, "Ring of Fire" was rumored to be inspired by Carter's turmoil over her feelings for Cash, especially since they were both married to other people at the time.

    "Ring of Fire," which features lyrics such as, "I fell into a burnin' ring of fire / I went down, down, down / And the flames went higher / And it burns, burns, burns / The ring of fire, the ring of fire," stayed at the top of the charts for seven weeks and became a Top 20 hit on the rock charts as well.

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