"Riding with Private Malone" is a song written by Wood Newton and Thom Shepherd, and recorded by American country music artist David Ball. It was released in August 2001 as the first single from his album Amigo. The song reached a peak of #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts (now Hot Country Songs) chart, and #36 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was Ball's first Top 40 country hit since "Look What Followed Me Home" in 1995. USA Today referred to it as "the country song that tapped most subtly and profoundly into the emotions of its audience" after the September 11 attacks, even though it was released to radio a few weeks before the attacks.

Co-writer Wood Newton told The Boot that Thom Shepherd had the name of Malone, because it rhymed with home. Newton had seen a story about a guy who had restored a 1966 Chevrolet Corvette and put up a website about it. He had also seen another story about a man who restored a car and he would tune the radio to one channel but it would always change back to a different station, so he thought the car was haunted. Newton said they chose a 1966 Corvette because it was an amazing icon of American ingenuity. Newton and Shepherd debuted the song on March 23, 2001, at the Opry Star Spotlight.

The song describes a narrator who has just finished his military service and finds a classified ad for an "old Chevy". Upon purchasing the car, he discovers that it is actually a 1966 Corvette. He opens its glove compartment, where he finds a note written by the car's former owner, a deceased soldier of the Vietnam War. The note is dated 1966 and tells of the car's origins: it came from a soldier, Private Andrew Malone, and it stated: "If you're reading this, then I didn't make it home," implying that Malone wished for his car to be sold to another person should he die during the war.

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