Watch Dan + Shay Perform ‘Tequila’ on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’

Dan + Shay stopped by the set of Jimmy Kimmel Live this week to perform their hit single, “Tequila.” The song is from their self-titled third studio album.

“Tequila” became the fourth time the duo, made up of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney, landed at the top of the charts. Written by Smyers, along with Nicolle Galyon and Jordan Reynolds, the song, which says, “But when I taste tequila / Baby I still see ya / Curled up on the floor in a Serotta t-shirt / The same one you wore when we were sky-high in Colorado / Your lips pressed against the bottle / Swearing on a Bible I’d never leave you / I remember how bad I need you / When I taste tequila,” wasn’t exactly autobiographical, although the guys admit tequila is their preferred drink of choice.

“We did like 200 shows last year or something,” Smyers tells PopCulture.com. “And all us band guys, we’re like, ‘We should try to not drink ten beers tonight, cut some calories.”

After briefly trying vodka, Smyers and Mooney settled on tequila, and they’ve never looked back.

“It’s cool,” Smyers said. “Gives us a little burst of energy before we go on stage. We’ll do a celebratory little shot and sip on it all around stage. It naturally became our drink of choice with the Dan + Shay band and crew. And it’s been a part of our lives.”

Dan + Shay just released their latest single, “Speechless,” which seems poised to be their next No. 1 hit. The song and video were both inspired by their relationships with their significant others.

“Speechless is definitely inspired by our wives,” Mooney acknowledges. “It’s very cool to release songs that are not only stories of our lives but also very personal experiences. Seeing our wives for the first time in their wedding dresses was absolutely unforgettable and we talked about that while writing the song and bringing that moment to life in this song.”

Dan + Shay have had plenty of success at radio, with mega-hits like “From the Ground Up” and “How Not To.” Both songwriters – Mooney wrote Rascal Flatts‘ “I Like the Sound of That,” among others – they reveal it’s not always easy to know which songs to put on an album.

“It’s really difficult,” Smyers concedes. “Sometimes you just know if it’s right for Dan + Shay or if it’s not. Obviously, we love getting cuts on other records, but our own artist career is our priority. If we write a song and it feels super right for Dan + Shay, we usually know it pretty quickly, right off the bat.

“And if it doesn’t, it might have a home with somebody else,” he continues. “It doesn’t mean it’s not a great song, or it wasn’t good enough for us, it’s just we have a specific thing we’re trying to do, a specific direction, and we can usually feel it in the room.”

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Photo Credit: Getty images/Jason Davis