Kenny Chesney and Old Dominion surprised fans with the release of a new collaboration, “Beer With My Friends.”
The release of the song comes on the heels of the final two nights of Chesney’s Here And Now Tour, which features Old Dominion as a special guest. Throughout the tour, Chesney has invited members of OD to join him on stage. He says he hopes their new collab will further cement their musical bond.
“There are people you meet and just click,” Chesney says. “Matt (Ramsey) and Brad (Tursi) have been singing ‘Save It for a Rainy Day’ with me on all these tours, and that’s always – every single night – one of the highlights of the show for me. You can feel the energy, so I started thinking we better catch that while we can.”
Co-written by David Lee Murphy, Shy Carter, and Bryan Simpson, “Beer With My Friends” encapsulates all the feel-good vibes and carefree energy that Chesney and Old Dominion have become known for.
“Right now I really need a beer with my friends/ Pop a top or two and talk about way back when/ With some folks that seen me through thick and thin/ Start seeing life through a rose-colored neon lens/ We’re gonna get that old jukebox working hard/ Before it’s over I’ll know everybody in this bar/ It’s been too long no matter how long it’s been/ Right now I really need a beer with my friends,” they sing on the chorus.
“We’ve all been there,” Chesney admits. “It doesn’t matter if it’s four years or yesterday, there’s nothing like hitting that local bar with your friends. That’s what this whole tour has felt like – every city, every face, every song – as we’ve taken it back out to No Shoes Nation. It’s so much more than a show or a concert, it’s really letting go – and I wanted to capture that in a song. ‘Beer With My Friends’ is all of it.”
The tune may sound familiar as co-writers Carter and Murphy previously released the song as a collaboration with Cole Swindell in 2021.
“Beer With My Friends” follows Chesney’s 19th studio album, Here and Now, which spawned the singles “Knowing You,” “Everyone She Knows,” “Happy Does” and “Tip Of My Tongue,” as well as the title track.
The song comes as Old Dominion’s latest single “No Hard Feelings” continues to climb the charts at Country radio. “No Hard Feelings” appears on the group’s 2021 project, Time, Tequila and Therapy, an album that also features “I Was On A Boat That Day.”
The Here And Now Tour has certainly been a memorable one and the country superstar hopes this collaboration will keep the good times rolling.
“I’ve never seen anything like this summer,” Chesney says. “Before it’s over, I wanted to give everyone something to remember it by, a song that we can all sing wherever we are – and know there’s nothing like these moments we’ve shared. All you gotta do is put it on, turn it up and we’ll all be right back there; bringing OD in reinforces it all. So, here’s to kicking it all off at Gillette Stadium this weekend.”
Ahead of the back-to-back shows at Gillette Stadium, Chesney teased that he has a few surprises in store for fans attending the shows.
