Luke Bryan’s Drinking & Driving Speaks to Deeper Problem
Celebrity news site TMZ has posted pictures taken in July of country artist Luke Bryan drinking while driving his truck. In the pictures Luke can clearly be seen enjoying a can of Busch while behind the wheel, keys in the ignition. Because the drinking and driving occurred on Luke Bryan’s private ranch in Tennessee though, the police say there is nothing wrong with what Luke Bryan did, and no laws were broken.
However, paired with another picture Bryan posted in late September of his truck submerged in a pond, and the increasing pervasiveness of lyrics in popular country songs condoning drinking and driving, the incident speaks to a deeper, smoldering problem facing country music and the ethics behind lyrics meant for widespread consumption.
2013 has seen popular country music shed its family friendly identity more than any other time in the genre’s history, fueled by country’s big male stars and their laundry list / country rap style of music. Three of the checkboxes on the requirement sheet of country’s current checklist songs are beer, trucks, and drinking beer while driving trucks. The precedent was set with Jason Aldean’s blockbuster country rap “Dirt Road Anthem” that went on to become the best selling song in 2011.
I’m chilling on a dirt road. Laid back swerving like I’m George Jones Smoke rolling out the window. Ice cold beer sitting in the console
Luke Bryan’s big 2013 country rap hit “That’s My Kind Of Night” follows a similar lyrical thread.
I got that real good feel good stuff . Up under the seat of my big black jacked up truck
Rollin’ on 35s. Pretty girl by my side You got that sun tan skirt and boots. Waiting on you to look my way and scoot
Your little hot self over here. Girl hand me another beer, yeah!
Country music has gone from the format of cautionary tales to condoning irresponsible behavior because it fits some skewed vision of party culture. Drinking themes and much worse including murder have always been part of the country music’s thematic pull, but never has reckless behavior that very well could resort in the injury or death of others been dealt with in such a glamorous light, especially when much of the target demographic and appeal of said music resides under the legal drinking age. An average of over 10,000 people die every year due to drunk driving in the United States, and it accounts for roughly 1/3’rd of all traffic fatalities.
If Luke Bryan wants to drive drunk on his own property or crash his truck into a pond, that’s his prerogative. But if we’re spending millions of dollars as Americans to attempt to curb the tide of deaths and injuries by drunk drivers, it would be nice if Music Row wasn’t spending so much time and money endorsing it.
December 2, 2013 @ 9:46 am
Amen. Well said.
December 2, 2013 @ 10:19 am
Agreed. I’ve been saying that for a while now. To some of the artists it may be just a song but we see time and time again how their dimwitted fans take the songs all too seriously.
December 2, 2013 @ 10:30 am
Good point, and well said. In classic country morality there is often a consequence for drinking and partying too much, even it’s just a downward spiral into self pity (heh heh.) But there are definitely consequences to driving or operating any piece of machinery when intoxicated. It’s a bad idea for anyone.
Also, this article reminds me to say thanks for directing your ire at “Music Row,” as you did here, rather than using the word “Nashville” as a metonym for the manufacturers of pop country culture. I appreciate the effort and I really wish more people could grasp that nuance.
December 2, 2013 @ 11:24 am
This simply shows the lack of depth with today’s music row music. Drinking and driving in a country song isn’t new, but now they have no creativity behind it in the lyrics and… they are marketing it to 16-25 year olds. Which half of them shouldn’t even drink.
Plus, they only sing about it in a “party atmosphere” or “young love”. When we all know that drinking and driving doesn’t end in a party or love. Most of the traditional country songs that covered this topic were not in a “happy time”. I.E. Paychecks- “Drinkin’ and Drivin'”
This stupid bro-country douche bags have no depth or sense of what they are even singing about. Or in this case, are putting on video.
December 2, 2013 @ 11:39 am
Real country singers drink and drive on lawn mowers….
December 2, 2013 @ 12:49 pm
I wonder if Bryan thought he could create a similiar “legend” around his pond crash?
…But seriously, let’s not forget about Jones’ 1999 SUV wreck near his house, scary stuff. Gonna put on “Wreck On The Highway” after reading this article.
December 2, 2013 @ 12:53 pm
Very true. Atleast George sang songs relatable to his life and so many others lives. Unlike Luke Bryan, whose songs are nothing but meaningless smut.
December 2, 2013 @ 11:45 am
Poppycock! Country music is about real life, about people with problems. People with problems drink, they wear their heart on their sleeves and they get homesick. At least he isn’t singing about cocaine and ecstasy! It is this sanctimonious attitude that started Country Music on the road to the sappy “it all sounds alike to me” “almost but not quite” Rock crap we now hear on the radio. IT IS NOT COUNTRY MUSIC…not even close to what defined it originally. I don’t mind stretching the boundaries occasionally for the sake of variety. I understand thinking “outside of the box”, but what’s left inside the box needs a whole lot of bubble wrap to keep it from rattling around. This kind of “political correctness” has become evident in the low quality of songwriting being crammed down the listeners throats and the productions are all reminiscent of each other. Record companies and producers long ago gave in to greed and sold Country Music down the river. Did you ever notice that new artists start out with a couple of sort of traditional sounding hits, but soon move on to the more crossover friendly songs? Give me a beer, a bar and a Honky Tonk band, let me sit there and nurse my wounds until I forget I’m wounded. Then let the Redneck in me raise a little harmless hell. Save your self righteous sermon for Sunday.
July 7, 2016 @ 2:40 pm
Yeeee Haw
December 2, 2013 @ 12:00 pm
I agree country music shouldn’t glorify drinking and driving, but I don’t see this as unique to Luke Bryan or his ilk.
George Jones had god knows how many DUIs, and I can think of about drinking and driving (If Drinking Don’t Kill Me, Honky Tonk Song, and BEER Run) The first one certainly doesn’t glorify drinking and driving, but the other ones do. This is nothing to say about him happily taking to the tractor in music videos for other songs (Vince GIll One More Last Chance and Hank Jr’s All My Rowdy Friends).
But George Jones is a great singer and those are great songs, so no one complains. Same with Johnny Paycheck’s Drinking and Driving. I’m sure if I kept thinking about it, I could come up with dozens of great songs that reference a drinking and driving in a non-negative way.
Again, probably not ideal that good songs have bad or ambiguous messages, but I still listen to them. I don’t listen to Luke Bryan because I don’t like his music.
December 2, 2013 @ 1:55 pm
As Applejack said above, “In classic country morality there is often a consequence for drinking and partying too much, even it”™s just a downward spiral into self pity (heh heh.)
This is the difference. Just because someone mentions, beer, drunk driving, cocaine, or anything else in the song, doesn’t mean they are condoning or glamorizing the behavior like Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, and others are in their songs. Context is what is important here. George Jones, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and Johnny Paycheck were singing cautionary tales. Luke Bryan is just trying to perpetuate the consumer culture by glorifying mundane artifacts of everyday life. Someone on Facebook posted Johnny Cash’s “Cocaine Blues” as evidence of a double standard, but the song concludes with Johnny saying, “and let that cocaine be.”
December 2, 2013 @ 7:55 pm
I clarified that songs like If Drinking Don’t Kill Me do not make drinking and driving look appealing. Some of Paycheck songs are certainly more about problems with addiction (I Can’t Quit Drinking comes to mind) but I don’t think Drinking and Driving fits that category.
But I challenge you to say that BEER Run (granted, it was Garth Brooks Song) or Honky Tonk Song had anything to do with the consequences of drinking or that George Jones’ driving a John Deere as a schtick wasn’t glorifying/making light of his drinking problems.
There are plenty of crappy modern country songs about the perils of excess alcoholism (Kenny Chesney-some people change/that’s why I’m here; Montgomery Gentry-Back When I Knew it all etc.) and there are classic country songs that glorified it, like the ones I mentioned.
It may well be that there are more pro-drinking w/o talk of consequences modern country songs than classic country songs; but a few examples don’t convince me.
December 2, 2013 @ 12:31 pm
Twenty years ago, I co-wrote a song with a friend who had a writing deal, here in Nashville. It had a line about throwing empty bottles at a road sign on a back road. When he took it to his publisher, they told him, we don’t want drinking songs, and especially about drinking in a car. Seems like the tide has turned here in “Guitar Town”.
December 2, 2013 @ 1:01 pm
“Well, I was rollin’ by myself, went down to Memphis, Tennessee
and I was lookin’ for a guy who had a mullet and no teeth
and I was trippin’ on some acid a latino gave to me
Hey, I was smokin’ morphine ’til it knocked me off my feet
Then I scored some “H” from my old Uncle Pete
now I’m startin’ to feel like I might’ve ODed
On an overdose of drugs, overdose of sin
I’m gonna live it to the fullest like I’m on ten
and I love gettin’ high – hate bein’ low
and I like to drive my truck down a muddy dirt road
and I’m workin’ real hard, tryin’ to get paid
’cause I’m a crazed country rebel and I’m driftin’ state to state”
It’s not that pop-country has a bad message, it’s that the music sucks.
December 2, 2013 @ 2:05 pm
“It”™s not that pop-country has a bad message.”
But that’s the thing, the lyrics of the Hank3 song you quoted are not pop country. 95% of Americans have no idea that Hank Williams III even exists, let alone is being exposed to that song through mass media. Luke Bryan’s “That’s My Kind of Night” was the #1 country song for 8-10 weeks, and he just performed the song on prime time television at the AMA’s being beamed into millions of households. Hank3’s music holds a parental advisory sticker, while Luke Bryan’s is being directly marketed to 16-24 year olds.
Context is what is important here. Nobody is saying we shouldn’t mention beer in country songs. I was against Kacey Musgraves being censored at all on the CMA Awards, but people wondered why when she said “crack” it wasn’t censored, and when she said, “Roll up a joint” it was. The reason is because “crack” was said with a negative connotation, and “roll up a joint” wasn’t. This is the reason why what Luke Bryan, and Jason Aldean are doing is in no way similar to what other country artists have done over the years.
Whether it is the context of where the music is being marketed to, or the context of how the “sin” is being portrayed in the song, that is what is important to understanding why this issue is not a double standard.
December 2, 2013 @ 8:02 pm
I agree that Hank III’s drug songs usually tell of the good and bad times (Crazed Country Rebel probably is a bit more focused on the good, but he has plenty to balance it out); but the point remains that there are plenty of good country songs that glorify drug and alcohol use.
Jackson Taylor-Cocaine/Whiskey Drinking Song
Roger Creager-Everclear
Cory Morrow-Have one more round
etc. etc. etc.
December 2, 2013 @ 2:46 pm
Not that it matters much to the overall discussion about substances and morality and whatnot, but it’s not clear that Hank 3 was actually behind the wheel of anything when he was droppin’ acid and all. He said “rollin’ by myself.” The way it was phrased, it could just mean something like “chillin’ by myself.” But I digress.
December 2, 2013 @ 1:02 pm
Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand anything Luke Bryan sings, but I was just wondering what you think of the paycheck songs like ” drinking and driving” “D.O.A.” “she’s got a drinking problem” and plenty of others that seem to glorify drinking and driving or just being an alcoholic in general. Maybe it’s different because that was actually how Paycheck’s life was while Luke Bryan just sings about it because it’s what sells. Just looking for your opinion on it. I’m a huge Paycheck fan so don’t take this as a shot at him either.
December 2, 2013 @ 4:00 pm
I would label those Johnny Paycheck songs especially DOA, along with many of the other classic country songs that mention drinking and driving as cautionary tales, with a completely different context than what Luke, Jason Aldean, and others are doing in popular country today. The exception might be Paycheck’s “Drinking & Driving” which does take sort of a lighthearted approach to the whole subject, but he does talk about the police being on his tail and getting a DUI, so…
This is the thing. I’m not saying what Luke Bryan is doing here is unprecedented, that it has never been done in country music before. Some of those classic artists and songs may also deserve to be labeled as crossing a line. But this is not 1975, and Luke Bryan is not Johnny Paycheck. What I am talking about is a concerted effort by Music Row to include lyrics in songs that expressly glorify drinking and driving because it is seen as “cool” to be driving down the road in a brand new truck sipping on a beer. There’s no heartbreak in that, no soul. It’s simply a veiled Budweiser and Chevy commercial turned into a country song. Professional songwriters are expressly putting that element into popular country songs to make them popular, and I think that says a lot about where country music is right now.
December 2, 2013 @ 5:25 pm
The difference is with many of the older songs there was a world weariness about them. These were songs by adults about adult topics even some of the more frivolous offerings. That is one of the things about country music that always appealed to me. Because so many of the writers/singers had lived hard lives they could convey the full spectrum of these issues, both the good times and the serious consequences. Now in our youth obsessed culture we are seeing country music target a young audience and hence we see all these party songs with no awareness of the consequences of these actions. And Luke Bryan is the prime offender here in my opinion. This is a 37 year old man who has built his entire career on these stupid spring break concerts that glorify the party culture. Sadly I think mainstream country is teetering on the edge of losing their core adult audience that understands that life is not all a party in a cornfield and a drive down a dirt road with an ice cold beer in the console.
December 2, 2013 @ 1:52 pm
Frankly I’m sick of all the histrionics of the anti-alcohol Puritans. There are a thousand things, just as dangerous as drinking, that could distract you while driving, but most are not on the radar of the prohibition crowd, because their target is not drinking and driving, but all drinking. Candy Lightner, who founded MADD, left the organization because she rightly saw that their crusade had very little to do with saving lives and much more to do with prohibition, power, and making themselves bundles of money.
December 2, 2013 @ 4:03 pm
MADD and anti-alcohol Puritans may very well be off their rocker. I’m simply saying there is a concerted effort to mention drinking and driving in a glorified context in popular country songs at the moment, and I think that raises some ethical issues. That doesn’t mean I’m calling for prohibition, or this stance should be lumped in with the people that are.
December 2, 2013 @ 2:22 pm
“You got that sun tan skirt and boots. Waiting on you to look my way and scoot
Your little hot self over here. Girl hand me another beer, yeah!”
Genius!
They even managed to get “boots” and “scoot” in there, what could be better!
What did it take them, five or six minutes to write this song? that includes time to get a coffee from the office coffee machine.
They must have a good laugh after they write this drivel and foist it on the dolts that sing along, dance to it, and buy it, beers raised high.
December 2, 2013 @ 2:40 pm
lol he crashed his truck after 1 busch light
December 2, 2013 @ 2:41 pm
Music has glamorized heavy drinking since before I was born and I suspect that it always will.
Music has also glossed over or made light of alcohol, alcoholism and its consequences.
I am glad that music is art, though, and not part of a state or societal propaganda campaign to make me behave a certain way by giving me overt or subliminal messages.
I have been in recovery for many years, so for me the drinking songs are confirmatory of mistakes I made for a long time until I hurt enough to ask for help.
I get kind of a chuckle when I hear them now because they sing about a lifestyle I once knew too well and that I don’t want back today.
But I have been there, done that and gotten the tee-shirt, so I can clearly relate.
I agree with Trig that it is sad to see artists who are popular with young people glamorize getting drunk and high.
I think that the pre-concert partying and the post-concert rumbling is reflective of some serious substance abuse that is promoted by the artists.
I have always found it upsetting that so many people enabled George Jones’ alcoholism by laughing about his antics.
The stories may be funny on their face, but they show a very sad, desperate man – not a funny man.
December 2, 2013 @ 3:04 pm
After all y’all quoting those Luke Bryan lyrics over and over, I’m going to have to listen to Wayne Hancock’s “Miller, Jack & Mad Dog” on repeat all the way home from work…
December 2, 2013 @ 3:16 pm
I could be wrong because I haven’t heard it in a while, but doesn’t Beer run imply that the singer is driving, NOT drinking at one point? and the version of “honky tonk song” Im familiar with (by Carl Perkins) is more of a complaining song than anything else.
December 2, 2013 @ 6:18 pm
The pond incident was rigged, No country boy would drive his old truck into a pond much less a new one….EVEN DRUNK !! The pond was a publicity stunt just like Derks Bentley and the golf cart up a tree incident.. They are trying so hard to look like they belong in the redneck arena of COUNTRY, it is funny.
December 2, 2013 @ 6:21 pm
They aint lived the life…and damn sure cant sing about it !
December 2, 2013 @ 7:24 pm
Although I don’t believe in drinking and driving, I question why this idea of country being a “family friendly” genre is so important. A lot of country isn’t family friendly, and a large portion of the country that is somewhere still within the realm of real country or more based on a traditional sound tends to have lyrics that aren’t family friendly and deal with some dark themes. Hell, I’d argue that country outside of the mainstream has been pushing for a less family friendly persona for a long, long time and it just won’t stick on many levels.
I just had an issue with that comment, seeing as I see country in a much different light than “family friendly”. I would put Luke Bryan as family friendly before Hank Williams personally.
December 2, 2013 @ 10:26 pm
I agree that there needs to be a balance. There need to be cautionary tells of someone who drives drunk, kills someone and goes to jail for life. Just like Ronnie Van Zant wrote “That Smell” and “Saturday Night Special” to warn people (mainly his band) of the consequences of using drugs and handguns.
December 3, 2013 @ 4:05 am
Now I don’t condone drinking and driving, but I have an idea.
We take Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Colt Ford and the other asshats
Get them drunk as hell and put’em on a dirt track. Maybe some of them will crash
And be horribly injured. The winner gets a .45 to the back of his noggin.
Problem solved.
It’s called humor. Don’t get offended.
December 4, 2013 @ 10:29 am
This argument is all about context. Drinking, drug use, etc…, has ALWAYS had a place in country music. I don’t think anybody will argue that. In the past, drinking or drug use was usually part of a bigger picture or theme within the song (heartache, loss, addiction, etc…). A means to an end.
Now drinking is the theme. There’s no substance profound wisdom within these songs. There are no more cautionary tales, just songs about partying and having a good time- and they’re being marketed to children. Leave that to Rock ‘N’ Roll!
December 4, 2013 @ 8:38 pm
He more than likely overdosed on the “real good feel good stuff” under the seat of his big black jacked up truck. Again. =P
December 7, 2013 @ 3:25 am
Stfu man. What is this, mothers against drunk drivers?
December 7, 2013 @ 8:00 am
No but how about Mothers Against Crappy Music.
October 17, 2014 @ 10:10 am
Really people.unless you live or really come from the farm like we do its our way of life.and as far as him runnin off in the pond it could happen to anybody.party on luke and keep them good tunes comin….im just a cold beer drinker…
November 11, 2017 @ 9:53 am
People need to my there own biscuits and gravy. give luke bryan privacy.