We take you behind the scenes and explore the making of one of our favorite tunes with The Song Remembers When…
Song: “Ain’t Worth the Whiskey”
Songwriters: Cole Swindell, Josh Martin, and Adam Sanders
Album: Cole Swindell
Before Cole Swindell was topping the chart as an artist, he was a songwriter in town just looking for someone to record his songs. That’s when he wrote “Ain’t Worth the Whiskey.”
Cole had gotten together with a few buddies to write, and they all started tossing around titles. When he heard someone say “Ain’t Worth the Whiskey,” Cole felt that was the one they needed to write. It was personal to him since he’d just been through a break-up. He thought they could take the position of “I’ll drink to my buddy,” “I’ll drink to a country song,” but “I’m not going to drink to drown out her memory.”
Because he was making his living as a songwriter at the time, Cole was pitching his songs. There was interest in this one from Montgomery Gentry and Thompson Square, but Cole decided to save it for his debut album. He went on to release it as his third single and, in April 2015, it became his second straight number one!