“I’m the second best singer on the stage right there.”
Luke Bryan joked about himself while watching an old clip for Billboard’s “Chart History” video series. On the screen was the 2013 CMA Awards, the night he sang “Drink a Beer” on the show, five days before the song went to country radio. Whiskey Riff shared the interview on Nov. 5, with the 60th CMA Awards coming up on Nov. 18 in Nashville. Lainey Wilson hosts.
If you know Luke mostly from TV, he’s the Georgia singer behind “Country Girl (Shake It for Me)” and a longtime judge on “American Idol.” Back in 2013, radio knew him for fun songs. He says so himself. “I think at the time, I was known as the up-tempo really energetic, high energy party guy,” he told Billboard.
“Drink a Beer” showed another side of him. It’s a slow song about getting hard news and going down to the water to raise a beer to someone you lost. Luke didn’t write it, but he says it fit his own life a little too well. Looking back, he called it “probably my best top bottom song ever.”
His brother, Chris, passed away in 1996. His sister, Kelly, passed away in 2007. “Obviously, with me losing my brother and my sister, and obviously sharing some beer, I didn’t get a chance to have enough beers with them,” he told Billboard.
He thinks fans could hear that when he sang it. “I think people could really go man, this guy has lived it.”
On Nov. 6, 2013, the CMA stage went dark and foggy, with tall trees on the screen behind the band. Luke sang it slow and plain. At the end he stood and raised his beer.
Luke wasn’t singing alone, though. Before the show, he picked up the phone and asked one more person to join him.
That man was Chris Stapleton. Today he’s one of the biggest voices in country music. In 2013, most TV viewers didn’t know his name yet. He was a Nashville songwriter who had already written No. 1 songs for George Strait, Kenny Chesney and Josh Turner, according to CBS News. He also wrote “Drink a Beer” with his friend Jim Beavers, and he sings harmony on Luke’s record. At the CMAs, he stood back in the fog in a cowboy hat, singing harmony behind Luke.
“And so when I had the opportunity to perform ‘Drink A Beer’ at CMA’s, I called Chris,” Luke told Billboard.
He says plenty of people in Nashville already knew how good Stapleton was, and “we were praying that the world would learn about Chris Stapleton the artist, not just a songwriter.” His verdict on the night: “I was just really happy to share that moment with Chris.”
This is the official video of that CMA performance, posted on Luke’s own channel. Stapleton is the man in the hat in the background.
Luke and Chris Stapleton sing “Drink a Beer” at the 2013 CMA Awards
The world did catch on. His first solo album, “Traveller,” came out in May 2015. That November, Stapleton sang “Tennessee Whiskey” with Justin Timberlake on the CMA Awards and won New Artist, Album and Male Vocalist of the Year in one night.
Luke tells the whole story in Billboard’s “Chart History” video. “Drink a Beer” comes up at about the seven minute mark.
Luke watches the clip and tells the story to Billboard
This year Stapleton is up for four CMA Awards, including Entertainer of the Year. “Drink a Beer” went to No. 1 in early 2014, and Luke says fans “were able to take that song and heal also.”
When the song ended that night in 2013, the last thing on the big screen wasn’t either singer. It was a family picture of Luke with his brother and sister, and the words “In memory of Chris & Kelly.”