 According to an interview that Bob Ferguson gave to Steve Eng for his Porter Wagoner biography, "A Satisfied Mind," Ferguson wrote the song while driving from Nashville, Tennessee to a concert for Choctaw Indians in Philadelphia, Mississippi.He recounted that he passed a sign for Carroll County, Tennessee, which inspired the song's title, and by the time he saw a sign for Carroll County, Mississippi, the song was a finished work.Wagoner's frequent musical collaborator Dolly Parton covered "The Carroll Country Accident" in 1969, including it on her "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)" album.