“I Was Watching This Gal That Had Quite A Derrière” – Jamey Johnson Was Inspired To Write “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” After A Night Out In Nashville

It might not be his most profound song he’s ever penned, but it’s a crowd pleaser.

It’s always funny seeing one of your favorite songwriters’ names next to a song that sounds nothing like the body of work they’ve recorded. It leaves you confused as a fan and makes you wonder how such juvenile lyrics can come from the same mind that produces thought-provoking and emotional lyrics.

It’s genuinely one of the greatest mysteries in country music.

However, now and again, one of these silly songs becomes a cult classic and is recognized by fans of all music genres. A prime example of this is Trace Adkins’ “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.” The 2005 song from Adkins was penned by legendary songwriters Jamey Johnson and Randy Houser, along with bro-country hitmaker Dallas Davidson.

And if this is your first time learning this, yes, you’re reading this correctly. The same man who penned “In Color” also contributed to the writing of “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.”

In a recent interview, Dillon Weldon, the host of the Drifting Cowboy Podcast, asked Johnson about the song. To which Johnson promptly replies.

“All right, this interview’s over. I don’t know who you’ve been talking to.”

Johnson jokes around with him for a minute before settling into the story about how that silly song came to be. And the idea for the tune came up while they were drinking at the former Wildhorse Saloon, a famous downtown Nashville bar that is now Luke Combs’ Category 10 bar.

“So yeah, we were at the Wildhorse Saloon one night. Randy Houser, Dallas Davidson, and I got together to drink some beer, and Rob Hatch was the bartender. He was a good bartender, but he would turn in some beer spills all night. Turns out he was spilling all of it in our glasses.

We had a good deal worked out there. We were sitting over there drinking one night, watching that dance floor at Wildhorse Saloon. Every now and then, you could walk in there, and it was like a big old corporate party, and it was just kind of weird. The vibe was a bunch of people who worked together. Now they were going to hang out and drink together and watch each other dance and sh**.”

Johnson shares that this was the kind of clientele at Wildhorse that night. As the evening progressed, just as they had expected, the corporate folks began to loosen up, which led to some great people-watching.

“It took a few drinks to get in them to get it going, and we were sitting there catching the first parts of it really busting loose. I was watching this gal that had quite a derrière. I mean, just in sheer volume. Quite a few ham sandwiches went into that.

She was doing this dance with everybody else for a while, and it was like the whole thing was going counter-clockwise, and then at some point the music just did something to her, and she just stopped and started bouncing that thing up and down like a basketball. Twisted around a couple of times and then sent the whole direction of it all back the other way, so that the dance floor reversed itself.

It turns out we weren’t even looking at the same thing. While I was studying that, they were evidently looking at some supermodel, and Dallas said ‘Badonkadonk,’ And Randy said, ‘Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.’ And I said ‘I’m in, let’s go write that.'”

HA. After the men left the bar, they went to write “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.” Johnson said that in total, it only took them about thirty minutes to write, with the lyrics coming out of the three men seamlessly. However, there was one hang-up that they disagreed over for a short period, specifically regarding what rhymed with the song’s title.

“The only hang-up in it was when Dallas said ‘Donkey Kong.’ I kind of, ‘Come on, man? What is that?’ He was like, ‘Nah dude, you had this line like..’ My line was ‘slap your grandma,’ because it was something I heard growing up. I mean, we were just laughing at each other. Especially at my hang-ups on whether or not to put ‘Donkey Kong’ in this song.”

I mean, Dallas Davidson does have a point. If “slap your grandma” made it into the song, “Donkey Kong” should too.

“Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” might not be Johnson’s most profound lyrics, but sometimes you need to write something light and airy after a few beers with the boys. This song does just that, and luckily for Johnson, it has a cult following today.

Fire it up before you go.

The post “I Was Watching This Gal That Had Quite A Derrière” – Jamey Johnson Was Inspired To Write “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” After A Night Out In Nashville first appeared on Whiskey Riff.