Is there anything more quintessentially country than a drinking song inspired by your mama? 

In any case, it’s a feat Justin Moore‘s accomplished, as “Why We Drink” becomes his ninth number-one hit.

It all started one evening as Justin and his wife were out to dinner with his parents.

“It was taking awhile to get… our meal, and I had ordered two or three beer[s] before the food even got there,” he explains. “And my mom just simply looked at me, and she goes, ‘Why do you drink so much?'”

“Now she’s drinking a margarita at the time, mind you,” Justin adds. “But anyway, it gave me the idea to write this song.”

The moment of genius came when Justin took the idea to the man behind “Dust on the Bottle.”

“I threw out this idea and David Lee Murphy… said, ‘Because it’s Friday, because it’s Monday, because my team lost, because my team won,'” Justin recalls. “I go, ‘That’s it! That’s how to do it.'”

“And we wrote it probably, in honestly, twenty-five minutes. It was one of those that just kind of fell out. And those don’t come along very often, but certainly we welcome them when they do,” he laughs.

Now all that’s left is for Justin to settle up with his mother.

“I didn’t give her any writing credit,” he admits, “but I’m gonna have to give her a plaque or buy her a purse or something. Out of her and my dad, she’s the one I got my little bit of wild nature from, so she’s gotten a kick out of it.”

You can spot Charlene Moore giving Justin her seal of approval, as she makes a cameo in the “Why We Drink” music video. 

By Stephen Hubbard
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