Many Luke Bryan fans are familiar with the story behind “Drink A Beer” and how the song was for Luke’s brother who passed away in a car accident at the age of 26 and his sister who passed away expectantly at 39. But not many people know that the song found Luke because it was never intended for him to sing when it was written.
“Drink A Beer” was written by Jim Beavers and Chris Stapleton and Stapleton remembers that “Jim came in with that entire chorus, and it really just became my idea to make it morbid and maybe have somebody die in it,” he adds with a laugh.
The “Drink a Beer” lyrics combine a fond remembrance of times gone by with sorrow over someone who’s passed away too soon: “Sometimes the greater plan / Is kinda hard to understand / Right now it don’t make sense / I can’t make it all make sense / So I’m gonna sit right here / On the edge of this pier / Watch the sunset disappear / And drink a beer.”
Luke heard the song and decided to cut it in remembrance of his siblings, which was a detour from his usual lighter, party-centered song catalog. Bryan’s performance strikes a perfect balance between sorrow and bittersweet memories, imbuing the recording with an emotional impact that turned it into a career single.
“You just don’t know what’s gonna happen to songs,” Stapleton reflects. “It was this fictitious thing when we wrote it, and then when Luke recorded it, it really brought weight, with his own life circumstances, that really gave that song a life.”
