Sober Country Artists & Their Stories Set To Song

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Many people can imbibe in alcohol or other things in moderation just fine. It’s something that takes the edge off of life, loosens them up in social situations, and enhances their life experiences. For others, that’s not the case. They’re much better leaving the bottle on the shelf. Many of these people also happen to be musicians and songwriters, and many who also happen to be some of the best to ever do it.

“They were good until they got sober” is often the dumb offering from social media dunces when some musician goes sober. But contrary to this common misconception, sometimes sobriety brings the best out in an artist, and more specifically, inspires some of their greatest songs.

And whether you’re sober yourself, aspiring to get sober at some point, or not sober at all, it’s hard to not be inspired by these artists, and their stories.

Jesse Daniel

Traditional country artist Jesse Daniel is a perfect example of using country music to straighten you life out and get back on the narrow path. Starting out in punk band and logging plenty of time in jail as a ruffian in Northern California, Jesse’s sobriety and love for country music go hand in hand. They’re like two sides of the same coin. His experiences with drugs and getting sober also have inspired some of his best songs. “Soft Spot (For The Hard Stuff)” was one of Daniel’s early hits and remains a crowd favorite, while the song “Gray” might be the best song Jesse has ever written.

Tyler Childers

Perhaps no other modern musician has done more to directly address the addiction crisis head on than Tyler Childers. Through the Hickman Holler Appalachia Relief Fund charity he founded with his wife Senora May and the Healing Appalachia events in West Virginia, Tyler Childers has put himself on the front lines of the addiction crisis. It’s familiar territory for Childers, who is from the part of Kentucky and Appalachia that was the epicenter of the opioid epidemic. When you hear him sing a song like “Nose To The Grindstone,” you know it’s coming straight from his heart and Tyler’s lived experience.

BJ Barham of American Aquarium

BJ Barham of American Aquarium is a great example of someone who wears their sobriety on their sleeve, and hasn’t let this life choice impinge on his creativity, but fuel his muse as he takes his audience on a journey of personal growth and discovery.

As he once said, “Every night that I lay my head on my pillow and I haven’t had a drink, I’ve won. I’m sober. Every morning I wake up and tell myself I’m not going to have a drink, I won. I’m sober. I know every day I can look myself in the mirror and know, ‘you won today BJ.’ You didn’t do anything stupid. That’s sobriety. Recovery is not letting yourself down, and also for me it’s talking about it in front of people in every town and city I go to. It’s just another group of people I’d let down if I slipped.”

Whey Jennings

Waylon Jennings was a notorious cocaine addict for many years, and then became a sober champion later in life for kicking the white powder and helping to clean up his fellow Outlaws. Only fitting that his grandson Whey Jennings would follow in that path. Earlier this year Whey participated in the 2024 Mobilize Recovery Across America tour, as well as launched a 21-day “Break The Cycle” social media awareness campaign across his social media channels where he personally addressed some of the common themes and topics faced by addicts trying to find their way to recovery. 

Whey put his experiences with addiction into the song and heart-wrenching video for “Sleeves” that he wrote with fellow songwriter Wes Shipp.

Jason Isbell

Musicians and songwriters specifically are often wired a little different than the rest of us, and unfortunately what often makes them brilliant musicians also makes them more susceptible to personal demons. There’s perhaps nobody who’s taken their story of achieving sobriety, and stamped it in a song that will withstand the test of time more than Jason Isbell. “Cover Me Up” has become an all-time song for Jason, for another certain somebody, and for all of American music, ripped from Isbell’s very personal recovery story.

Jamey Johnson

It had been 14 years since Jamey Johnson released a new, original album until his latest called Midnight Gasoline. It’s also been nearly 14 years since Jamey Johnson has had a drink. On the new album is a song called “Sober” that he co-wrote with James Slater.

“I haven’t had a drop of alcohol since 2011, and I know that could end this afternoon. It is a day-to-day, hour-to-hour decision,” Jamey Johnson says. “Most of the places I play are bars, or I am still hanging out in bars. That’s where most of my friends are. Now I can hang out in them and not be drinking like I used to. That is what ‘Sober’ is about.”

But this isn’t the only time Jamey Johnson has broached the subject. Back in 2008 he co-wrote another song with James Slater that appeared on Jamey’s That Lonesome Song album. It went on to become one of his signature songs. It was called “High Cost Of Living.” So yes, Jamey Johnson knows a thing or two about the sobriety subject. And can write about it with sharp clarity, but drunk and sober.

Brad Paisley

Unlike many other sober country artists, Brad Paisley really doesn’t talk about his sobriety at all. But it is something that he’s confirmed multiple times over the years. Ironically, he got pulled over in 2011 for suspected DUI. He’d been out with his kids getting ice cream and was driving distracted, and was able to walk a straight line just fine.

But amid the pill epidemic, Paisley finally decided to speak out. Originally from West Virginia, he’s seen the destruction first hand like so many other country artists, and decided to put his perspective in the song “The Medicine Will” was co-written with Lee Thomas Miller. The studio version features Jerry Douglas on dobro, and Dan Tyminski on mandolin.

Cody Jinks

Cody was notorious for being a hard-charging, hard-drinking, modern-day Outlaw of country music. But just like many of his brethren before him, older age gave way to a more sober state of mind.

“I had to learn how to be sober. I was 43 years old and I took my first sober plane ride. I played my first sober show. I had my first Halloween party at my house that my wife and I host every year, sober. I had to learn how to do everything again,” he told Saving Country Music recently. “I left on the road and didn’t come home for 14 years. My kids didn’t know me. They’re teenagers now. So I’ve been righting a lot of wrongs with my family.”

Jinks started off his new album Change The Game with the song “Sober Thing.”

Elvie Shane

Since his debut single that went straight to #1 called “My Boy,” Elvie Shane originally from Caneyville, Kentucky has labored to make mainstream country that hits a little different. He’s had some hits and misses in the endeavor while recording for BBR’s Wheelhouse imprint, but his single “Pill” definitely hits hard.

Elvie Shane wrote the song with Lee Starr and Nick Columbia. He says about the track, “‘Pill’ is my story, told from the perspective of a note to me from my little brother in my most trying times. It’s an apology to those I love for the turmoil I put them through. But for me this goes way beyond just what my family and I have gone through. I want to be a vessel and share other people’s struggles and experiences, even if it helps one person, that means I did my job.”

Morgan Wade

Morgan Wade is known for her songs, and her voice, and her tattoos. One tattoo marks an important moment in her life, 6/17/17. That was the day she decided to get sober. After visiting New York for the first time, she “drank more than I’ve ever drank in my life,” and says, “I remember a hangover that lasted for a couple weeks. I was so depressed, I didn’t think I was going to make it out of that.”

This is when she decided to get sober. To conclude her 2023 album Psychopath, Morgan Wade performed the song “27 Club,” which she wrote on her 28th birthday. the “27 Club” is a reference to all the past music greats like Janis Joplin, Jimi Henrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and others that died at 27.

Ray Wylie Hubbard

Ray Wylie Hubbard might have the coolest recovery story of them all. Few if anyone else can give Stevie Ray Vaughn credit for seeing the value in them as a musician and a human, and taking them aside to say that sobriety might be a better path forward for them. Hubbard has now been committed to the cause for 37 years, and the 78-year-old celebrated both his birthday and his sober day on November 13th of this year.

Subsequently, Hubbard has become known for reaching out to others who might be struggling to return the favor Stevie Ray Vaughn extended to him. Hubbard doesn’t really have a lot of songs about getting sober. Many of his songs are about his time in a drunken haze. But they often are just as inspiring to sober people, reminding them of darker times in their lives, like the song he wrote with Hayes Carll, who got sober recently himself called “Drunken Poet’s Dream.”


OTHER SOBER COUNTRY ARTISTS INCLUDE: Evan Felker and Kyle Nix of the Turnpike Troubadours, Charlie Muncaster of Muscadine Bloodline, Jo Dee Messina, Jason Boland, Margo Price, River (Sarah) Shook, Kelsey Waldon, Adam Hood, Jaime Wyatt, Roger Alan Wade, Ashley McBryde, Chris Janson, Steve Earle, Joe Nichols, Josh Turner, Tim McGraw, Jake Owen, Trace Adkins, Jon Pardi after being diagnosed as pre-diabetic, and despite his music being decidedly pop more than country, Keith Urban has been a strong advocate and supporter of sobriety for most of his career.

…and many more.

© 2024 Saving Country Music

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