In 2012, Luke Bryan had a two-week No. 1 hit with “Drunk On You“. The track, which grew to become a multi-platinum hit for Bryan, is on his third studio album, Tailgates & Tanlines. Written by Rodney Clawson, Chris Tompkins, and Josh Kear, the track is Bryan’s fourth No. 1 single and his first chart-topping single that he didn’t write.
Although Jason Aldean isn’t a author on “Drunk On You”, Bryan nonetheless owes him a debt of gratitude for the success of the track. Before “Drunk On You” was pitched to Bryan, Aldean was given first dibs on it. Aldean turned it down, a choice he later mentioned he regretted.
“That song got pitched to us,” Aldean says (through Songfacts). “And at the time, for whatever reason, I wasn’t looking for that type of song, and we ended up passing on it.”
To make issues worse, the 2 had been touring collectively on the time. Bryan was serving because the opening act on Aldean’s My Kind Of Party Tour. It means Aldean needed to take heed to Bryan sing “Drunk On You” each night time.
Tailgates & Tanlines additionally contains “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)”, “I Don’t Want This Night To End“, and others. But for Bryan, “Drunk On You” is essentially the most pivotal monitor.
“[It] was the cornerstone of the album,” he says. “We were just making sure that we wanted to pick the right singles to get to the summertime and to get to ‘Drunk On You’.”
The Story Behind “Drunk On You” by Luke Bryan
“Drunk On You” says, “Girl, you make my speakers go boom boom / Dancin’ on the tailgate in a full moon / That kinda thing makes a man go mm hmm / You’re lookin’ so good in what’s left of those blue jeans / Drip of honey on the money maker gotta be / The best buzz I’m ever gonna find / Hey, I’m a little drunk on you / And high on summertime.”
A track Bryan nonetheless contains in his stay exhibits, “Drunk On You” was virtually known as one thing completely totally different.
“The idea that we actually wrote to was called ‘High In Summertime’,” Clawson tells Taste of Country. “We felt like ‘Drunk On You’ was a better title because you can’t say ‘high’ in a country song. Even though it’s not [about] getting high on drugs. It’s getting high on summertime. It was a really fun song to write, because it was just painting a scene of a bunch of kids sitting in a circle.”
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for ACM
