“Whiskey Lullaby” Songwriter Bill Anderson Says The Dixie Chicks Were Originally Going To Record The Heartbreaking Brad Paisley Hit

Could have ended very differently for “Whiskey Lullaby.”

The 2004 duet from Brad Paisley featuring Alison Krauss is not only one of the most heartbreaking country songs of all time, but it also turned out to be one of Paisley’s biggest hits.

Surprisingly, the song was never a #1, peaking at only #3 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, but it’s by far his most-streamed song on Spotify and has been certified double platinum by the RIAA.

The heartbreaking ballad was written by country music legend “Whisperin'” Bill Anderson along with Jon Randall, after a particularly rough period in Randall’s life. He had recently gotten a divorce from fellow country singer Lorrie Morgan, and had lost his own record deal. As Anderson recalled recently during an appearance on the Drifting Cowboy podcast:

“We had a writing date on the books for a couple of weeks down the road, and I ran into Jon in the parking lot at Sony Publishing, and I noticed his head was kind of down. I said, ‘Hey, man, I’m sure looking forward to writing with you in a couple of weeks.’ …

He said, ‘Already today I have lost my wife. I’ve lost my publishing deal. I’ve lost my recording contract. And I don’t know what else I’m going to lose before the day is over.’ He said, ‘I don’t know if I’ll be in any shape to write a song in two weeks.'”

Well that writing date finally came around, and Anderson had an idea for a song called “Midnight Cigarette” about a relationship that burns out slowly. But Randall had another line that he couldn’t get out of his head:

“And he had a chord on his guitar, and he said, he put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger. I forgot all about ‘Midnight Cigarette.'”

When he asked Randall where the line came from, he said it was from his personal experience over the past few weeks:

“He starts telling me that after that day where we had met, that he went to a friend’s of his house, and he said, ‘Frankly, I just crashed for a couple of weeks.’ He said, ‘I drank too much. I just went off the deep end for about two weeks. After about two weeks, I came to my senses.’

He said, ‘I went to my friend, and I said, I’m really sorry. I apologize for what I’ve done. I know I really put you through a lot.’ He said, my friend looked at me, and he said, ‘That’s alright Jon. I’ve put the bottle to my head and pulled the trigger a few times.’ From that minute on, that was what I wanted to write the song about, and he did too.”

Of course Anderson got his idea of a “midnight cigarette” in the song’s opening line, but from there the two went on to write the heartbreaking ballad that we all know today:

“She put him out
Like the burning end of a midnight cigarette
She broke his heart
He spent his whole life trying to forget
We watched him drink his pain away
A little at a time
But he never could get drunk enough
To get her off his mind until the night

He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away her memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees
We found him with his face down in the pillow
With a note that said I’ll love her till I die
And when we buried him beneath the willow
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby”

But even after writing the song, it turns out Brad Paisley wasn’t the first artist who wanted to record it.

According to Anderson, the Dixie Chicks (now known as just The Chicks) had the song on hold and were planning to record it, until the controversy surrounding lead singer Natalie Maines’ comments on then-President George W. Bush and the Iraq war brought their career to a halt in 2003:

“The Dixie Chicks were the first to put that song on hold, and then when their career kind of imploded, Brad had heard it.”

@dillon.weldon The story behind Whiskey Lullaby. #whiskeylullaby #bradpaisley #alisonkrauss #billanderson #countrymusic ♬ Whiskey Lullaby (feat. Alison Krauss) – Brad Paisley

But Brad had a different idea, and wanted the song to be a duet. When he asked Anderson about the idea, and suggested Alison Krauss, the songwriter knew that it was the right decision:

“I said, ‘Who are you going to get to do it?’ He said, ‘Well, I’m going to ask Alison Krauss… I don’t know if we can work out all the legal problems because she’s on a different record label, but that’s what I’m going to try.’ And I said, ‘Man, go for it. I think that’s a brilliant idea.’ And looking back on it, it was a brilliant idea!”

Along with the Dixie Chicks and Brad Paisley, the song was also pitched to Dierks Bentley, but he ended up passing on “Whiskey Lullaby” because it was just too sad:

“I turned down ‘Whiskey Lullaby’ (because) I never heard it as a duet. The guy who co-wrote that song is one of my good friends – Jon Randall. I thought, ‘It’s a great song, but it’s pretty dang depressing.’ I write plenty of songs like that. It was just not for me. That’s why I end up writing most of my music… every line has to be right for me because I’m singing these songs for the rest of my life. But, I love ‘Whiskey Lullaby.’ It’s one of my favorite songs that Brad sings.”

They say that every song finds its home, though sometimes it takes a song longer than others to find its way to the correct artist. I think it’s safe to say “Whiskey Lullaby” found the right home when Brad teamed up with Alison Krauss to record it back in 2004. Otherwise, we might not still be listening to it today.

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