Luke Bryan Turns 49: A Look at the Hits He Gave—and Got

It’s been well documented that Luke Bryan‘s first No. 1 hit came in the form of a song he wrote for Billy Currington – “Good Directions.” Bryan wrote the down-home ditty with Rachel Thibodeau, and it topped the charts 18 years ago. It would still be another two years until Bryan nabbed a No. 1 as an artist with “Do I.”

Today, Bryan turns 49. He gave Currington the gift of a No. 1 song. In honor of Bryan’s birthday, let’s look at the hit songs that other famous artists gave him, or helped him write.

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“Drink a Beer”

Written by Jim Beavers and Chris Stapleton, “Drink A Beer” is from Bryan’s Crash My Party album and talks about yearning for someone who has died. Bryan’s relationship with loss has been well documented. His brother, sister, and brother-in-law all passed away, and Bryan and his wife, Caroline, helped raise his nieces and nephew.

Lyrics include: When I got the news today/ I didn’t know what to say/ So I just hung up the phone/ I took a walk to clear my head/ This is where the walkin’ led/Can’t believe you’re really gone

“I wrote the song with Jim Beavers,” Stapleton told Audacy. “He walked into the session with the entire chorus already written. He didn’t necessarily know what the verses should be about. Me being me, and slightly morbid sometimes, I thought maybe it should be about somebody that passed away.”

Stapleton said that given Bryan’s personal history with death, he took it to the next level.

“It was written from a fictitious place,” Stapleton says of “Drink a Beer.” “When Luke took it on as a song that he wanted to perform, that’s when it got legs and got life, because of some of his family history and some losses he’s had. I have to credit Luke; it was a good pairing of an artist and a song. Sometimes that’s when the magic happens: when the right song gets with the right artist. That was one of those times.”

“This is How We Roll”

Bryan co-wrote “This is How We Roll” with Cole Swindell and Florida Georgia Line on their tour bus. He collaborated with FGL on the up-tempo, and it topped the country charts in 2014. The co-write was an accident, and he told CBS it’s “the luckiest he ever got as a songwriter.”

Swindell said he and FGL were on tour with Bryan during his Dirt Road Diaries Tour. One night on stage, Bryan referred to being able to shoot at the moon in the country and that no one would bother you. The comment inspired Swindell and FGL’s Brian Kelley to write “This is How We Roll.”

“I just walked up on their bus randomly, and I was up there goofing off with them and they were working on ‘This Is How We Roll,’” Bryan told CBS. “They said, ‘Sit down and write it with us.’ They had it halfway done, and I was like, ‘Guys, y’all have this thing.’”

Bryan said the men convinced him to add his two cents to the process, and then he jumped on the song as an artist. Later, he used the song to create a moment in his show to spotlight Swindell.

“It’s a huge stage moment, huge hit,” Bryan said.

“Do I”

Bryan wrote “Do I” with Lady A’s Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley. The trio’s Hillary Scott sang backup on the song. When Bryan made it his first No. 1 song in 2009, Lady A had already been charting songs for a couple of years. Bryan was so excited about the success at his No. 1 party that he verbally gushed his appreciation. Haywood and Kelley joked that he talked more than Scott.

“The song is about a couple that doesn’t know if their worlds are jiving with each other, or they don’t know how their relationship’s going,” Bryan told CMT in 2009.

Lyrics include: Do I turn you on at all when I kiss you, baby?/ Does the sight of me wantin’ you drive you crazy?/ Do I have your love? Am I still enough?/ Tell me, don’t I? Or tell me, do I, baby?

Bryan, Kelley, and Haywood are all from Georgia, and the three of them had been searching for a time to write. Bryan suggested they meet at this house.

“I ran the (song) idea by them, and the next thing you know, we’re working on it and knocking it out,” Bryan said.

The men played “Do I” for the first time at an event in Georgia. Fans saw video of the performance online, and the song organically took off.

“Roller Coaster”

Cole Swindell and Bryan’s guitar player, Michael Carter, wrote “Roller Coaster” together. And while Bryan had recorded Swindell’s songs before, this song about a vacation flirtation in Panama City Beach was the first that Bryan made a radio single.

Swindell remembers the song started with a memo typed into Notes on his iPhone.

“She had a cross around her neck and a flower in her hair,” Swindell quoted. “That’s what started the whole song, and the rest was history.”

Swindell and Carter grew up going to Panama City Beach, and Swindell said that a beach romance was what everyone hoped for when they rolled into the beachy tourist spot.

“When you started getting to that age where you were talking to girls down there, it always seemed like you met ’em, or you finally got up enough courage to talk to them, like the day before you left,” Swindell said.

Carter explained there was “no way to explain how cool it is” that he gets to write songs, produce, and play with Bryan for a living.

Swindell was thrilled that Bryan did such a great job on their song.

“We couldn’t have had a better guy record it,” Swindell said. “He nailed it. He sang his butt off on it. It’s life-changing. It’s crazy to think that me and my buddy, Michael Carter, wrote something that Luke cared enough about to want to put out on radio.”

(Copyright 2025 Jason Moore)