Carrie Underwood’s “Little Toy Guns” continues its climb up the country charts. But according to Underwood, fans need to listen to the song closely to get the real meaning.

“If you didn’t pay attention to the lyrics at all, you would just think, ‘Wow, this is like a cool rockin’ song,’ but the lyrics are actually quite serious,” she said. “The storyline is basically about a little girl who hears her parents arguing, and she -- in her words -- wishes that they were fake like plastic, like little toy guns and they didn’t actually hurt and didn’t hurt each other and didn’t hurt her.”

She also shared what went into making the song’s emotionally-charged music video.

“Basically we’re like, what do we do with this?” said Underwood. “I don’t want to follow the story exactly. And I didn’t want it to be too serious. I just really want it to be relatable.”

She ultimately re-teamed with a trusted video director who brought his own creative vision to the project.

“I got to work with P.R. Brown on ‘Two Black Cadillacs,’ so I just thought he would be a really great fit,” she said. “So we contacted him and go, ‘Do you have any more ideas?’ He came up with the whole concept of this incredible storybook theme where the little girl becomes the hero.”

Playing the part of the young heroine is 8-year-old Grace Rundhaug, whom Underwood previously worked with in NBC’s 2013 production of The Sound of Music Live.

“Whenever I was trying to think of the types of things I wanted to see in this video I just saw her face,” said Underwood about her co-star. “She’d be the perfect little girl in the song, in the video.”

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