Elle King and Miranda Lambert’s latest collaboration, “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” is on top. Debuting at #1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales Chart and #1 on the Rock Digital Sales Chart, the party song was written by King and Martin Johnson, who also produced the track, and was recorded between Nashville and New York prior to the pandemic.
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An anthemic tale of love, imbibing, and taking some wrong turns, “Dunk” marks the second time the two artists collaborated—their first union was 2020’s “Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” along with Ashley McBryde, Maren Morris, Tenille Townes, and Caylee Hammack, which picked up a ACM Award for Music Event of The Year. Elle was also a special guest on Miranda’s 2019 Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars tour.
Accompanying the track, Lambert and King filmed a “wedding” video in Nashville inspired by the 1980s—complete with gaudy garb, big hair, and even bigger makeup—with King playing the bride (along with her real-life fiancé as the groom) and Lambert as her maid of honor.
The story behind the song sums up the duo’s “wild” friendship, says King. “Miranda is someone I have looked up to as a songwriter, musician, performer, and human being for a long time, so our tumbleweed snowball story of getting to know each other is the ultimate real deal kinda thing,” says King. “Nobody revs me up, kicks my ass on stage, or treats me more like family than Miranda Lambert. Our rowdy reputations [precede] us, so who else could sing this song together besides us?”
Lambert says the song was born out of their growing friendship throughout the past several years. “We are new friends but it really feels like we are old friends and I felt like that immediately when I met her at one of her shows,” says Lambert. “Since then, we’ve toured together and sang on stage together, hung out and partied together, recorded together, and so much more. This song just feels like the natural transition to the after party.”
