Whiskey Drink

Album

Highway Desperado

Label

Broken Bow Records

Genre

Country

Duration

10:00

Composer(s)

Kurt Allison;Jonathan Edwards;Tully KennedyJohn Morgan

Entered Chart

Apr 26, 2025

Peak Date

May 17, 2025

Released

July 29, 2024

"Whiskey Drink" tells the story of a man in the familiar post-breakup malaise: mopey, moody, and medicinally marinated in Tennessee whiskey. But rather than simply sobbing into his glass, he does what any rational adult might: he starts talking to it. Not metaphorically, mind you. Literally. The whiskey becomes a conversational partner - a sort of malted therapist in a bottle. "Tell me, Jack," Jason Aldean sings, addressing Jack Daniel's as though it were a sympathetic drinking buddy. Two of Aldean's band members, Kurt Allison and Tully Kennedy, wrote the song with John Dee Edwards and John Morgan. The same four penned another of Aldean's heartbreak-with-a-drink-in-hand songs, "That's What Tequila Does." "Whiskey Drink" appears on Aldean's 11th album, Highway Desperado. The album contains other odes to barstool melancholy, including "I Knew You'd Come Around" and "From This Beer On." Clearly this was a thematic focus Aldean wanted to explore throughout the project. Aldean's regular producer Michael Knox helmed the track. The musicians are: Rich Redmond: drums Tully Kennedy: bass, programming Kurt Allison: electric guitar, keyboards, programming Adam Shoenfeld: electric guitar Danny Rader: acoustic guitar Mike Johnson: pedal steel Tony Harrell: Hammond B3 Perry Coleman: background vocals Blake Bollinger: programming Here are four other songs where whiskey becomes a kind of dialogue partner, confessor, or sparring buddy: 1973 "Whiskey River" by Willie Nelson While it's not a dialogue in the strictest sense, the way Willie addresses whiskey river gives it a mythic, almost sentient quality. It's something he appeals to, pleads with, and surrenders to, as if it's alive: Whiskey river, take my mind Don't let her memory torture me 2003 "Whiskey Lullaby" by Brad Paisley & Alison Krauss While not a direct conversation, the song personifies whiskey as a silent partner in sorrow and eventual death. He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger 2014 "Whiskey And You" by Chris Stapleton (originally by Tim McGraw) This one's structured more as a comparison than a full conversation, but the tone suggests the whiskey has become the confidant. There's a difference between whiskey and you 2023 "Hey Whiskey" by Tim McGraw In this song McGraw sings from the perspective of someone talking to whiskey like it's a person who has stolen his lover away. He treats the bottle as both a rival and a temptress. Hey whiskey, what'd you do with her? You took the fire and turned it into ashes

Hey, whiskey drink
I know it's been a while
I gotta talk to you, gotta catch you up
On the hell I'm in right now
Yeah, whiskey drink
Now, you won't believe
The things I said, the way she left
The way the leavin' all went down

It might take all night
To get her off my mind
I need you one more time
Yeah, be a good friend

Come on, kick in, whiskey drink
I don't wanna think, think, think
About who she's with or where she is
Or how bad I miss her now
Come on, cigarette
Yeah, smoke out that regret
Pour it straight and strong, make her memory gone
Before you let me leave
Come on, whiskey drink, oh
Come on, whiskey drink

Yeah, tell me, Jack
Tell me that you got my back (That you got my back)
And that you're in it with me 'til the bottle's empty
Just like you always have
Come on, help me out (Woah, help me out)
Just get me by (Get me by)
I'd rather be hungover than cold sober
Still hung up on "goodbye"

So come on, whiskey drink
I don't wanna think, think, think
About who she's with or where she is
Or how bad I miss her now
Come on, cigarette
Yeah, smoke out that regret
Pour it straight and strong, make her memory gone
Before you let me leave
Come on, whiskey drink, oh
Come on, whiskey drink

It might take all night (It might take all night)
To get her off my mind (To get her off my mind)
I need you one more time (One more time)

So come on, whiskey drink
I don't wanna think, think, think
About who she's with or where she is
Or how bad I miss her now (How bad I miss her now)
Come on, cigarette
Yeah, smoke out that regret (Oh, that regret)
Pour it straight and strong, make her memory gone
Before you let me leave
Come on, whiskey drink, oh-oh, yeah
Come on, whiskey drink

Come on, whiskey drink

(Be a good friend)
(Go on, be a good friend now)
(Be a good friend, whiskey drink, yeah)