Luke Bryan Almost Passed on One of His Biggest Hits Because of a Single Lyric

Luke Bryan almost didn’t release “Drunk on You.” During an appearance on The BobbyCast, the country star revealed why he nearly didn’t record his hit 2011 track.

“The biggest scare of that song was, ‘You make my speakers go boom, boom.’ Is it cheesy? How cheesy is it?” Bryan recalled asking himself.

The American Idol judge said he “never considered” changing the lyric, though he did think about passing on the song.

“I considered it being so cheesy that I may need to back away from it,” he admitted, before revealing what eventually changed his mind. 

“[At] after parties or the little places we would put speakers up at Farm Tour, we would play that demo. I watched everybody in my crew start singing, ‘Girl, you make my speakers go boom, boom,’” he recalled. “And I went, ‘None of these people seem to have a problem with it.’”

During that time, Bryan said he “had people in my world sit me down and go, ‘You gotta let go of this boom, boom thing.’” 

Luke Bryan Discusses the Success of “Drunk on You”

Of course, now Bryan is glad he did just that, especially because the lyric “became the thing” people remember from the song. It also became a hit on the charts, topping the Hot Country ranking and peaking at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“It was that time where I was trusting my gut, I was trusting my songwriters’ gut, and I was trusting people in the label’s gut,” Bryan said. “You just had a crew of people that… we were firing and it was fun and man, I mean, [that] song really tells a great story.”

Currently, Bryan is fresh off the release his latest album, Signs, which came out back in September.

He’s been busy on the road this year too, and is gearing up for the next season of American Idol, which will air next year on ABC.

Bryan will return to judge the competition series alongside Carrie Underwood and Lionel Richie, and Ryan Seacrest will be back on hand as the host of the show.

Photo by: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images