Surprise! Kenny Chesney and Old Dominion will release a new collaboration, “Beer With My Friends,” on Friday, August 26. The song, written by David Lee Murphy, Shy Carter and Bryan Simpson, is Chesney’s way of celebrating their collective fun on his Here and Now Tour, which wraps up this weekend.
“We’ve all been there,” Chesney says of the song. “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.”
It’s only natural that the two country music acts combined their talents on a song, since they’ve been doing it live on stage for a long time. Old Dominion has been part of Chesney’s headlining stadium tours since his 2015 The Big Revival Tour, finding a commonality on and off the stage.
“There are people you meet and just click,” Chesney acknowledges. “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.”
Although the Here and Now Tour is at its end, Chesney chose to release “Beer With My Friends” now, as a way to honor the unforgettable experience.
“I’ve never seen anything like this summer,” Chesney reflects. “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.”
Chesney’s Here and Now Tour, which also includes Dan + Shay and Carly Pearce, concludes with shows on August 26 and 27 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Pre-save “Beer With My Friends” here
Photo Credit: Courtesy of EB Media / Allister Ann
