Diane Warren wrote "How Do I Live" for consideration for the 1997 action blockbuster "Con Air" soundtrack. She ran into LeAnn Rimes at a restaurant shortly following her win as Best New Artist during the 1997 Grammy Awards. Warren told Rimes that she wrote the song specifically with Rimes in mind, promising it to her. After she recorded the song the next day, Walt Disney Pictures, the company behind the Touchstone Pictures label, decided that Rimes' recording had too much of a "pop" sound, and that Rimes, then 14 at the time of the recording, was too young to sing about the subject matter of the song. The company then turned to Trisha Yearwood for the re-recording, to which the latter agreed. According to Yearwood, she was unaware of Rimes' recording prior to being approached by Touchstone Pictures to record the song.