Brad Paisley‘s new single “No I In Beer” was changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. He had to change some of the lyrics and the meaning of the song was changed by the situation.

“There are a few things I changed, for instance, the original opening line was “there’s a bunch of people coming over,” yet another example of things you would never imagine don’t apply in life, all of a sudden don’t right now,” Brad explains. “I had to rewrite that opening. I actually like better what’s there.”

The singer-songwriter also feels like the events around the country and world changed what the song means overall.

“It’s interesting because when I wrote the song, it didn’t have this large scale, over-arching theme of unity, well it did, but it didn’t have this feeling that it has,” Brad states. “The same exact words, two months ago, ‘we’re all in this together, there’s no I in beer,’ two months ago that’s just a ‘yay let’s party,’ now it’s like defiant and a rallying cry almost. Like a fight song. It’s crazy that that can mean such a different thing in less than eight weeks.”

Brad had to make an adjustment to the end of the song based on current events as well.

“Of course that last verse as well, that last chorus. It would have been a slightly different list of the people I am toasting at the end that are keeping this country going. Nurses are the new soldiers, for many years we’ve slowly learned how much we need to appreciate our soldiers, and it’s no different with nurses now. I was thrilled to be able to throw that line in because they deserve a beer and then some. They deserve a bar.”

Listen for “No I In Beer” by Brad Paisley on Bloomington-Normal’s #1 Country, B104.

What things have taken on new meaning to you in the past couple of months?

By: Buck Stevens