#84 – Too Drunk To Karaoke
#84-Too Drunk To Karaoke
-by Stacy Garwood-
Not even six months after the loss of Jimmy Buffett, the world is now mourning another musician that did things his own way and did it well – the great country and western star Toby Keith. Both were singers and songwriters who had vision, talent and an ability to create lyrics that seems to paint pictures in our minds, whether that was boat drinks on sailing vessels drifting along tropical shores, or in gritty dive bars filled with blue collar America out for a good time, both men were true to themselves and their music. And managed to come together on a couple of occasions, with some memorable music in the mix.
“Too drunk to karaoke, too drunk to karaoke…”
The first time Toby and Jimmy sang together, it was for the studio cover of the Hank Williams Sr. classic Hey Good Lookin’, and lyrics were shared by a host of country musicians along side Jimmy. Alan Jackson, who had the year before had a number one hit with Jimmy that might sound familiar called It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, along with Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, King George Strait and Toby Keith. Jimmy put that recording on his album Liscence To Chill. I remember how excited I was to see this lovely group of musicians perform this live at the CMA Awards, and watching videos of that performance still makes me smile.
Jimmy’s career mostly seemed to float on the edges of country music, but not quite in the mix. Heck, the man ultimately created his own sub-genre of music that he called Gulf and Western, but with the success of It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, it put Jimmy smack in the middle of mainstream country music, as well as garnering world wide attention because of the hit duet with the softspoken, lanky singer from Georgia named Alan Jackson.
After this, why the heck would Jimmy not want to continue making music with the who’s who of top country recording artists, hence the collaboration on Hey Good Lookin’ the following year. What a line up of artists that was, and a cover of a song that I think that Hank Sr. would have appreciated.
I am not sure when Jimmy and Toby Keith first met, but according to an interview from Toby Keith, he said that the two men had met and really hit it off. They might have come from different locations and backgrounds, but they had a lot in common, such as a talent for song writing from the heart, which I believe really translates into the music.
Almost a decade later, Jimmy had a little song he had written with long time songwriting partner Mac McAnally as well as Shawn Camp and Pat McLaughlin, and he was getting ready to record a new album. I would say that both Jimmy and Toby are fairly relaxed and fairly fun-loving guys, so this song seemed like a perfect fit for the two of them.
Interestingly, in 2011, Toby Keith was getting ready to record the song Red Solo Cup, and he let Jimmy listen to it and asked him to sing along with him on the recording. For reasons that I don’t know, Jimmy declined. It was one of the rare songs over the years that Toby Keith recorded but did not write, but he put his voice and charm and party attitude into it, and it climbed both the country and pop charts. It is a fun song, certainly, and maybe if it had been written about drinks served in coconut shells, Jimmy would have been all over that song duo.
But Jimmy certainly seemed to remember the offer, because he returned the favor and invited Toby Keith to sing along with him on a little song called Too Drunk To Karaoke, and Toby said “yes, sir, I will”.
And not only is this a fun, fun song, full of just the right amount of humor that can make a person feel just a hair uncomfortable about events or choices in the past, but comfortable enough to just laugh and sing along.
Too Drunk To Karaoke was released on JB’s album, Songs From St. Somewhere, and it was Jimmy’s twenty-seventh studio album.
And then, as if the song did not already have some kind of magic on its own, Jimmy and Toby got together and recorded a humorous video at one of Nashville’s hotspots, a karaoke bar called Santa’s Pub. I have to say I do find it interesting that this video was not recorded at one of Jimmy’s own Margaritaville’s or Toby’s I Love This Bar and Grill’s, which would have certainly promoted their own businesses. Both are fine establishments and I have spent a vacation in Las Vegas where I managed to drink shots in both bars on the very same day, starting at 2pm at Toby’s place and ending at 2am at Jimmy’s place, thankfully well within walking distance of my hotel room. Neither place involved an option of karaoke, thank goodness.
“When I signed up, I was ready to go, But they didn’t call my name for an hour or so, Damn if they didn’t make me wait too long, I was in no kinda shape to sing a Jon Bon song…”
Perhaps the location of the video shoot was better off at neither man’s establishments, and in a neutral location, such as music city itself. The video was shot in Nashville, and why not film it at a new (at that time) hotspot that features karaoke music every day of the week, and with a charming Christmas theme every day of the year. The place literally has Christmas lights inside and out, Christmas trees and multiple Santa’s decorating the joint and even strings of garland and tinsel, where the real-life namesake for Santa’s Pub, can usually be found serving drinks behind the bar.
Santa’s Pub is a karaoke bar on the outskirts of Nashville that started its life as a doublewide trailer and became a happening hot spot. The location did house a couple other bars before Denzel Irwin, nicknamed Santa for his long white beard, bought the place and turned it into a Christmas themed karaoke dive bar. Five days a week you can karaoke to your heart’s content until 3am, although the place does have a notable house band that plays on Sunday afternoons.
“You can sing in the shower till you sound real good, You can terrorize the whole damn neighborhood, But when you hit that stage with that mic in your hand, You better pace yourself son if you wanna have fans…”
Santa’s Pub is listed as being located 2.2 miles away from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and serves only beer and pop. No booze, no wine and no food, and the owner is proud of that fact. He says, “whiskey makes people stupid”. He also has strict rules for the karaoke stage, which include, “No beer, no cussin’, and no cigarettes”, and Santa takes those rules seriously.
When Jimmy and Toby filmed their fun-loving karaoke night out video, Santa’s Pub has only been in operation for little over a year, but it had become popular in Nashville fairly quickly, probably why it was a great location to feature for this karaoke-night-gone-wrong song. Today, Santa’s Pub has become an iconic part of Nashville lore, even drawing the likes of several famous singers, one of which was Ed Sheeren who took a turn on the karaoke stage.
The video is fun, it doesn’t take itself very seriously at all, much like the song. And I always enjoyed the byplay between Jimmy and Toby, who seriously let their personalities flow and looked like they had a damn fun time making the video. It features pitchers of margarita’s served right up in red solo cups, as well as Jimmy and Toby dressed up like ZZ Top while advising everyone to pace themselves, and even involving a little air guitar action. It’s a lot of fun, and I think it fits’ both the song and Jimmy and Toby’s images.
“If you ask me, hell I killed that song, When I looked around, everybody was gone, Except a couple of bouncers ‘bout half my age, They grabbed the microphone and threw me off the stage…”
The song was the first single that Jimmy released on Song’s From St. Somewhere, and I think picking Toby Keith to sing it with him was a boon for both men. And their collaboration of music continued, when two years later, Toby Keith called up Jimmy and said he had a song he wanted to offer a duo on, which ended up being another song I love so well, Sailboat For Sale, which was on Toby’s 2015 album 35 MPH Town.
Another song on 35 MPH Town was Rum Is The Reason, which Toby later said in interviews that Jimmy not only liked but had expressed that he wished he had written it. Honestly, if you listen to it, it really seems like it should be a Jimmy Buffett song.
When Jimmy passed in September of 2023, Toby Keith, also suffering from his own health issues including treatment for cancer, said this about Jimmy Buffett, “The Pirate has passed. RIP Jimmy Buffett. Tremendous influence on so many of us – T”. I cannot really say if Jimmy’s passing made Toby more aware of his own mortality, but after a two-year hiatus from recording and music, Toby Keith started performing again. In December, at the MGM in Las Vegas, a place that Jimmy and the Coral Reefers faithfully performed at a couple times each year, Toby sang a song of tribute to Jimmy and the song was “Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes”.
Mortality gets us all eventually and it came for Toby on February 5, 2024. In light of Toby’s own passing at the young age of 62 from complications of stomach cancer, I knew that I wanted to focus on a song this week that these two men had given us. There were several options, all of which I have mentioned earlier but I felt like Too Drunk To Karaoke was the right choice, simply because I think these two men, both fun loving, larger than life performers who perpetuated a party lifestyle, even though they were both so very much more than just a margarita and a red solo cup, would want us to laugh and smile and sing along.
“You don’t have to be good, don’t have to be refined, You just have to be a legend in your own mind, Don’t have to rehearse, or even sing on key, Just prove that theory of drunketivity…”
“Too drunk to karaoke, too drunk to karaoke…”
I hope that Jimmy and Toby have reunited at a dive bar or a beach bar or a karaoke bar in the land of the great beyond, and are sharing a drink and a laugh, and perhaps ushering someone either on or off a heavenly karaoke bar. Cheers and thanks for the music!
Stacy
Please enjoy Too Drunk To Karaoke. I have included the links to the 2013 studio version and the music video below. Enjoy!
2013 Studio Version:
Official Music Video from Jimmy Buffett Official:
The links are from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
**edited to correct spelling and grammar errors – Yikes!
